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ESSENTIALS IN 


CIVIL GOVERNMENT 


A TEXT-BOOK FOR USE IN 
SCHOOLS 


S. E. FORMAN, Ph.D. 



NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO 


AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

£ e-l a 


JKa'rt 


Copyright, 1908, 1909, 1915, 1924, by 

S. E. FORMAN 


Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London 


F. Civil Govt, 
e.p. 17 




MADE IN O. S. A. 


STP 19 W 


Cl A800910 

| 





PREFACE 


Of the whole number of pupils who can study Civil 
Government with profit more than nine-tenths are in the 
upper classes of the grammar schools and in the lower 
classes of the high schools. In these classes there are 
at least two million young people who can be led into a 
just appreciation of the rights and duties of citizens. 
Here is a rich field for the sower, an opportunity vast in its 
proportions for improving the quality of American citizen¬ 
ship and elevating the American electorate. 

The aim of this little book is to help those teachers who 
are trying to give the masses of their pupils sound and sys¬ 
tematic instruction in Civil Government: it is intended 
for use at the top of the grammar school or at the bottom 
of the high school. Its primary aim is not to teach facts. 
You cannot start young people on the road to good citi¬ 
zenship by gorging their minds with facts about govern¬ 
ment. The primary aim of the book is to establish political 
ideals and to indoctrinate in notions of civic morality. 

In the first few lessons (Lessons I-V) the pupil studies 
the little world in which he moves and has his being. He 
takes a peep at his own moral nature and he studies the 
governments of the home and of the school. Then he takes 
up the great subject of citizenship (Lessons VI-XI) and 
learns of civic rights and civic duties. Lessons XII-XV 
3 


4 


PREFACE 


treat of the powers of government. In these four lessons 
the great underlying principles of our government may be 
learned, and while studying them the pupil ought to catch 
something of the spirit of American government. “The 
letter killeth but the spirit giveth life.” With Lesson XVI 
the pupil begins to study the forms and workings of the 
^larger governments. Lessons XVI-XX are given to local 
government, Lessons XXI-XXVI to State government and 
Lessons XXVII-XXXYI to the National Government. 
The subject of Taxation is treated in Lessons XXXVII- 
XXXVIII. In Lessons XXXIX and XL the subject of 
Party Government receives attention. 

Will the general teaching of Civil Government in the 
schools tend to elevate the citizenship of the masses? It 
will if a lesson in Civil Government is made a lesson in 
political ethics. Good citizenship is an affair both of the 
head and of the heart, and training in citizenship must 
quicken the conscience as well as inform the mind. In 
the preparation of this book this truth has never been 
lost sight of. Wherever it has been practicable I have 
tried to help the teacher to combine instruction in Civil 
Government with instruction in morals. 

S. E. FORMAN. 

Washington, D. C. 


CONTENTS 


LESSON I 


PAGB 


Government and Laws.11 

Meaning of the Word “Government”—The Study of Govern¬ 
ment—What Government Does for Us—Laws. 


LESSON II 

The Government op Self.,15 

Self-Control—Self-Control can be Cultivated—The Reward of 
Doing Right—The Government of Self the Foundation of 
All Government. 


LESSON III 

The Family.19 

Husband and Wife; Marriage—Parents and Children—The 
Duties of Parents to Children—The Rights of Parents in Re¬ 
spect to Their Children—Importance of the Family Govern¬ 
ment. 

LESSON IV 

The Government op the School.24 

Pupils Should Know Something of School Government— 
School Officers—The Powers and Duties of School Officers— 

The Teacher. 

LESSON V 

The Government of the School 0 Continued) .28 

Rules that Pupils Must Obey—Duties of Teachers and Pupils. 


LESSON VI 

Citizenship: Who are Citizens.33 

Introduction—Meaning of the Word “Citizen” — Aliens— 
Naturalization. 


5 








CONTENTS 


LESSON VII PAOB 

Citizenship: Civil Rights.37 

Civil and Political Rights—The Right to Personal Security— 
Personal Liberty; Habeas Corpus—The Right of Private 
Property. 

LESSON VIII 

Citizenship : Civil Rights {Continued) . 41 

The Right of Religious Freedom—The Right of Freedom of 
Speech—The Right of Freedom of the Press—The Right of 
Assembly—The Right of Petition—The Right of Protection 
in the Home—The Right of Due Process of Law—The Right 
to Equal Protection of the Laws—The Right of Protection 
on the High Seas and in Foreign Lands. 

LESSON IX 

Citizenship: Who are Voters. 46 

The Right of Suffrage—Persons Who May Not Vote—Regis¬ 
tration. 

LESSON X 

Citizenship: Elections. 50 

At the Polls—Counting the Vote; Majority, Plurality—The 
Right of Holding Office. 

LESSON XI 

Citizenship : Duties of Citizens. 55 

A Few Words about Duty—Obedience to the Law—Defense 
of One’s Country—Earning a Living—The Duty of Study¬ 
ing Political Questions—The Duties of Voters. 

LESSON XII 

The Powers of Government: Majority Rule.60 

Introduction—The Power of the People—Democracy a Gov¬ 
ernment of Reason—Democracy a Government of Justice. 

LESSON XIII 

The Powers of Government: Representation .... 67 
Pure and Representative Democracy—The Representative’s 
Term of Service—How a Fair Representation is Secured. 








CONTENTS 


1 


LESSON XIV 

The Powers of Government: Checks and Balances . . 
Introduction—The Three Departments of Government—The 
Lower and the Upper House—The Veto Power—The In¬ 
dependence of the Departments. 

LESSON XV 

The Powers of Government: Local Self-Government . 
Introduction—The Three Grades of Government—The Rela¬ 
tion of the Local Government to the State—Local Self- 
Government—The Services of Local Government. 

LESSON XVI 

The County. 

Introduction—County Government Not Everywhere the 
Same—The County Seat—The County Commissioners or 
Supervisors—The Court Officials of the County—Other 
County Officials. 


LESSON XVII 

Town Government. 

Early Town Government in New England—The Town Meet¬ 
ing—Town Officers. 


LESSON XVIII 

The Township. 

The Nature of Township Government—Township Meetings 
and Township Elections—Officers of the Township. 

LESSON XIX 

Municipal Government... 

Why Municipal Government is Necessary—Village and Bor¬ 
ough Government—The City Charter. 

LESSON XX 

Municipal Government {Continued) . 

The Three Great Departments of City Government—The City 
Council—The Mayor; Municipal Executive Department-^ 
Commission System of Municipal Government—Services of 
City Government. 


I*AQ» 

73 


80 


85 


93 


99 


103 


109 







8 


CONTENTS 


LESSON XXI 


The State. 

The Thirteen Colonies—The Thirteen Original States—The 
Admitted States—The Outlines of a State Government. 


LESSON XXII 

The State Constitution. 

Meaning of the Word “Constitution”—Description of a State 
Constitution—How the Constitution of a State is Made— 
How a Constitution is Changed. 

LESSON XXIII 

The State Legislature. 

When and Where the State Legislature Meets—The Two 
Branches of the Legislature—Election of Members of the 
Legislature—Organization. 

LESSON XXIV 

The State Legislature {Continued) . 

How a Law is Made—The Initiative and Referendum—What 
the Legislature of a State May Do—Honest Men for the Leg¬ 
islature. 

LESSON XXV 

The Governor and His Colleagues. 

The Governor—Other Executive Officers—Impeachment. 

LESSON XXVI 

Judges, Juries, and Courts of Law.. . 

The Judicial Department—The Justice of the Peace—The 
Circuit Court—The Supreme Court—Civil and Criminal 
Cases. 


LESSON XXVII 

The National Constitution. 

Introduction—The Articles of Confederation—The Constitu¬ 
tional Convention of 1787—Amendments to the Constitu¬ 
tion. 


PAGE 

116 


120 . 


125 


131 


138 


144 


151 









CONTENTS 


9 


lesson xxvm 

Congress. . 156 

The Two Houses of Congress—The House of Representatives 
—The Senate—How a Law is Passed in Congress—The 
Power of Congress Limited. 


LESSON XXIX 

Congress (Continued) .162 

What Congress May Do—What Congress May Not Do. 

LESSON XXX 

The President; His Election. 168 


Introduction—The Nomination of a Presidential Candidate— 

The Election of the President—Inauguration. 

LESSON XXXI 

The President and His Cabinet. 175 

The Powers and Duties of the President—The Great Execu¬ 
tive Departments—Cabinet Meetings—The National Civil 
Service; the Civil Service Commission—Salaries. 

LESSON XXXII 

The National Executive Departments. 182 

Introduction—The Department of State—The Department of 
War—The Department of the Navy. 

LESSON XXXIII 

The National Executive Departments ( Continued ) . . . 188 

The Department of Justice—The Department of the Treasury 
—The Post Office Department. 

LESSON XXXIV 

The National Executive Departments (Continued ) . . .194 

The Department of the Interior—The Department of Agri¬ 
culture—The Department of Commerce—The Depart¬ 
ment of Labor—Executive Work outside the Depart¬ 
ments. 







10 


CONTENTS 


LESSON XXXV 


Territories and Dependencies . . 
Introduction—Hawaii—Alaska—Our 
The District of Columbia. 


.201 

Island Possessions— 


LESSON XXXVI 

The National Courts.206 

The Kind of Cases Tried in the National Courts—The Three 
Grades of National Courts—Special National Courts. 

LESSON XXXVII 

Taxation: The Property Tax.212 

Introduction—Taxation a Power of the Lawmaking Depart¬ 
ment—The Property Tax—How Each Taxpayer’s Share is 
Determined—The Collection of Taxes. 


LESSON XXXVIII 

Other Taxes.217 

The Income Tax—The Inheritance Tax—Licenses; Fees— 

Poll Tax—The Franchise Tax—Duties and Excises—Em¬ 
inent Domain. 


LESSON XXXIX 

Party Government : Organization of Political Parties . 222 
Introduction—The Organization of Political Parties—Nom¬ 
ination of Candidates by a Direct Primary Vote. 

LESSON XL 

Party Government : The Citizen and His Party .... 227 
The Choice of a Party—True Leaders and False Leaders— 


Loyalty to Party. 

Constitution of the United States, Text .232 

Index.248 








ESSENTIALS IN CIVIL GOVERNMENT 


I. GOVERNMENT AND LAWS 

“ Order is Heaven’s first law.” 

Meaning of the Word “ Government.”—In the Latin 

language the word gubernator means a pilot , a steersman , one 
who guides; and from this word gubernator we derive our 
word governor. A governor, therefore, is one who guides 
something, and the word government means guidance or 
management. Thus when we speak of the government 
of a home, we refer to the management of the private 
affairs of the home; when we speak of the government of 
a State, we refer to the management of the public affairs 
in the State. The word government will be used a great 
many times in this book, and we shall learn that there are 
many kinds of government. We shall speak of “self- 
government,” of “family government,” of “school govern¬ 
ment,” of “State government,” of “national government.” 
Wherever the word government occurs, it will mean guid¬ 
ance, management, control. 

The Study of Government.—You are now going to study 
the subject of government; that is, you are going to study 
11 



12 


EVERY-DAY GOVERNMENT 


how the affairs of mankind are managed; how men and 
women are guided in their journey through the world 
amidst other men and women; how society is held together 
and controlled. The study is of great importance, and 
should be of great interest, for the happiness of men and 
women depends largely upon the kind of government that 
guides and controls their lives. 

The study of government should interest children as 
well as adults; for children also are deeply affected by 
the government under which they live. In his earliest 
years the child is under the government of his parents. 
As soon as he is old enough he is sent to school, where a 
new government enters into his life and controls his ac¬ 
tions. He now lives under the government of the school, 
as well as under the government of the home. He must 
obey his teacher, as well as his father and mother. When 
he goes out into the streets, and parks, and fields, he finds 
that there is a third government to restrain him and reg¬ 
ulate his conduct. If he is very noisy, or if he runs upon 
flower beds in the park, or if he takes fruit from the or¬ 
chard of a stranger, he is promptly checked by a policeman 
or other officer, and may be punished for his offense. 
This third government which the child must obey is the 
government of the city, or of the State. 

And thus it is all through life; no matter where we go, 
or which way we turn, government always and everywhere 
follows us and regulates our actions. If the governments 
that control us are wise, and just, and kind, we are made 
happier by them; if they are harsh, or foolish, or tyranni- 


GOVERNMENT AND LAWS 


13 


cal, our lives are made miserable by them. By studying 
and understanding the different forms of government un¬ 
der which we live we may prepare ourselves to make them 
better. 

What Government Does for Us.— You have but to 
look around you to see how great and how useful are the 
services of government. Government keeps peace and 
good order among men; it protects life and property; it 
punishes crime; it keeps an army and navy for the defense 
of the nation; it supports courts of law where men may find 
justice; it regulates commerce and industry; it coins and 
prints the money we use; it collects and distributes our let¬ 
ters; it gives assistance to the poor and unfortunate; it 
cares for the public health; it supports the public schools; 
it keeps the streets and roads in repair. Many other serv¬ 
ices of government might be mentioned, but these are 
enough to show you that we owe a great deal to government. 

Laws. —The rules that governments make to guide our 
actions are called laws. A law states what we are to do 
and forbids what we are not to do. When a law has been 
made it must be obeyed. No man can disobey a law with¬ 
out being liable to punishment for his disobedience. We 
may not like a law, we may think a law unjust or unwise, 
yet so long as it is a law we must obey it. Moreover, 
when a person violates a law, he is punished, even if he 
did not know there was such a law when he violated it. 
Ignorance of what the law is wall excuse no one. Laws 
are made for the government of us all, and if we do not 
know what they are it is either our fault or our misfortune. 


14 


EVERY-DAY GOVERNMENT 


How laws are made and changed, and how people are 
forced to obey them, and punished for disobeying them, 
will be explained hereafter. At present it is enough to 
know that any government worthy of the name is always 
strong enough to enforce the laws that are made. It is 
the duty of all who live under a government to obey the 
laws of that government without being compelled to do so. 
If we think a certain law is bad, it is our right and our 
duty to try to have the law changed. Are you compelled 
to obey any laws that you think are unjust? 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. What is the meaning of the word governess f governmental? un¬ 
governable? gubernatorial? 

2. Explain the use of the “governor” on a steam engine. 

3. Name the people whom you know to be officers of government. 

4. What would happen if people on the street were allowed to do 
just as they pleased? 

5. What is a hermit? 

6. Of the services of government mentioned in the lesson which 
stands first in importance? Which stands second? Which third? 
Which fourth? Give reasons. 



The Stocks—an Old-fashioned Punishment 



II. THE GOVERNMENT OF SELF 

“ He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city.”— Bible. 

Self-Control. —Before you begin to study the different 
forms of government under which we live, I wish to call 
your attention to something that is at the foundation of all 
government. I wish you to think for a few moments upon 
the subject of the government of one’s self, or self-control. 
You doubtless feel in yourself the power to control your 
own actions in many ways. You can be studious, or you 
can be idle; you can be respectful, or you can be impu¬ 
dent; you can be kind, or you can be cruel. I think you 
will not deny that there is within yourself a government 
which controls your private actions; a will that directs 
the actions of your mind and body. 

We should constantly be asking ourselves whether our 
wills are carrying us in the right direction. True self- 
control consists in deciding to do what is right and doing 
it. Anger, appetite, laziness, envy, jealousy, pride, re¬ 
venge, tempt us to do wrong. Love, duty, conscience, 
whisper to us to do right. For which shall we decide— 
for the wrong or for the right? If we decide for the wrong, 
we may in the end become the slaves of our passions and 
be destroyed. For which, then, shall we decide? 

Self-Control can be Cultivated. — I believe you all think 
that you ought to control yourselves and do right, but 
15 


16 


EVERY-DAY GOVERNMENT 


some of you may feel unequal to the task of always doing 
right. Now, self-control lies in the will. If your will is 
strong, you will be able to govern yourself under the most 
trying circumstances; if it is weak, you will not. But 
remember this: A weak will can be strengthened by exer¬ 
cise, just as an arm can be strengthened by exercise. 

If a boy who has learned to smoke feels that smoking 
is injuring him, he should leave off the habit at once. 
When a cigar is offered to him he should refuse to take it. 
This may be hard to do at first. Let him refuse a second 
time and he will find it easier; a third time he will find it 
still easier. By continuing to refuse he will at last find 
that his desire to smoke is gone. His will conquers his 
appetite and he is master of himself. 

If ? girl who indulges in the ugly habit of saying spiteful 
and untruthful things about her acquaintances becomes 
ashamed of herself and desires to do better, she should 
begin by exercising and strengthening her will. When 
she hears some one saying unjust things about another, 
instead of helping along with the abuse, she should keep 
silent, even if she must bite her tongue to do so. By re¬ 
fusing for a time to speak falsely or unjustly about people, 
she will find that it is not necessary to bite her tongue 
to prevent herself from joining in when she hears slan¬ 
derous remarks. She will probably be inclined to use her 
tongue either to rebuke the slander or to say something 
good about the person slandered. 

Young people will find that a strong will bent on doing 
right will carry them safely past temptation. 


THE GOVERNMENT OF SELF 


17 


The Reward of Doing Right. —Thoughtless young peo¬ 
ple sometimes ask: “What is the use of doing right? 
What is the use of checking bad impulses and exercising 
self-control?” If you will look around you, and reflect 
upon what you see, you will find an answer to this ques¬ 
tion. You will find that the people who exercise control 
over themselves are happier than those who are carried 
along by passion and appetite. 

Sometimes, it is true, wicked and violent men seem to 
prosper and even to be happy. But they are not really 
happy. If you could learn the secret of their fives, you 
would find that bad, dishonest men lack one thing that is 
more precious than anything else in fife. They may have 
wealth, and honor, and high social rank, but they have 
not their own self-respect, and no one can be truly happy 
without this. With self-respect one can never be thor¬ 
oughly unhappy. You may be unfortunate or unsuccess¬ 
ful; people may scorn you or neglect you, yet if you always 
firmly do the right thing, you will always have a good 
conscience and your own self-respect. 

The Government of Self the Foundation of All Govern¬ 
ment. —There is another reward for those who exercise a 
strict control over themselves. Their government of self 
makes them good citizens and fits them to take part in the 
government of others. A community is composed of indi¬ 
viduals, and the character of its government will be like 
the character of the individuals who compose it. If it 
contains a large number of rogues, swindlers, idlers, 
drunkards, then its government will certainly be bad, for 


18 


EVERY-DAY GOVERNMENT 


the government of a people is never much better than the 
people themselves. If a community consists of honest, 
industrious, moral citizens, then it will have a good gov¬ 
ernment. Good government begins with the individual, it 
begins with you personally. If you intend to take a part 
in public affairs when you grow up, and if you intend to 
help in making your government better, you should begin 
by trying to order your own life aright. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Learn the following facts about the will: 

(а) The will grows strong by exercise. 

(б) The will may be assisted by favorable surroundings. If you de¬ 

termine to leave off an old habit and form a new one, put your¬ 
self under favorable conditions, make new associations, avoid 
temptations, take advantage of every outward aid.— James. 

(c) The will should never lose a battle. 

(i d) The will should act when it is called upon to act; it should 
never shun a battle. 

(e) We may strengthen the will by doing things now and then 
simply because we don’t want to do them. 

2. Name the faults which stand opposed to each of the following 
virtues: courage, 'perseverance, industry, cheerfulness, simplicity, self- 
reliance, liberality. 

3. Arrange the following virtues in the order of their importance, 
placing the most desirable virtue first: temperance, truthfulness, fru¬ 
gality, prudence, honesty, modesty, unselfishness, patience, charitableness, 
reverence. Give reasons for your arrangement. 

4. Arrange the following faults in the order in which you dislike 
them, placing the fault you dislike most first: anger, stinginess, revenge, 
hypocrisy, tardiness, jealousy, self-conceit, envy, cruelty, stubbornness. 

5. Define conscience. When you do wrong, is it the fault of your 
conscience or of your will? How may the conscience be improved? 


III. THE FAMILY 


"There is in the family an angel possessed of a mysterious influ¬ 
ence of grace, sweetness, and love; an angel who renders our duties 
more cheerful and our sorrow* less bitter. This angel is woman. 
Whether as mother, wife, or sister, woman is the joy of existence. She 
is a treasure of gentle consolation sufficient to soothe every sorrow. It 
is through woman that the family points to Eternity. Hold then the 
family sacred, my brothers. Reject every attempt to undermine it, for 
it is of God.”— Mazzini. 

Husband and Wife; Marriage. —The government that 
comes closest to the lives of young people is that of the 
family. At the head of the family stand the father and 
mother, who are united as husband and wife by marriage. 
Marriage is regarded by the law as a contract, but it is a 
very strong contract, and it ought to be a very sacred one. 
It is a contract that cannot be, and ought not to be, easily 
broken. Marriage is the bond which holds the family 
together, and it is of the utmost importance to us, both as 
individuals and as a people, that the family be held to¬ 
gether as firmly as possible. 

The blessings of the family as an institution ought to 
be ever before our eyes. In the family we grow in char¬ 
acter as we can grow nowhere else. In no other place can 
we learn the lessons of devotion and sacrifice and unselfish¬ 
ness that we learn in the home. Besides being a nursery 
of virtues and a source of happiness for its individual 
members, the family brings countless blessings to society 

19 


20 


EVERY-DAY GOVERNMENT 


at large. Indeed, we may say that the family is the 
foundation upon which all society rests. If you should 
destroy the family, you would destroy cities and States 
and governments and even civilization itself. And just 
as the family holds society together, so the marriage 
tie holds the family together. This great truth should 



never be forgotten. Nations have sometimes forgotten it, 
and they have always suffered for doing so. 

Parents and Children.—Parents regulate the conduct 
of children, protect them, educate them and provide 
them with shelter, food, and clothing. It is in the home, 
while members of the family, that children must look 
for their greatest happiness. The law that should gov¬ 
ern, and that usually does govern, in the family is the 
law of love and duty. Parents, as a rule, devote their lives 




















THE FAMILY 


21 


to the happiness of their children. What should children 
do in return? 

It has been found that parents are not always kind and 
loving and just towards their children, and that children 
are not always grateful and obedient to their parents. It 
sometimes happens that the parent or the child fails to do 
his duty. When this does happen, the government of the 
State steps in and commands what must be done. Let us 
learn something of the rights and duties which the law 
will not allow parents or children to disregard. 

The Duties of Parents to Children: 

(1) Support .—The first duty the parent owes to the 
child is to support it, to provide it with food, clothing, 
and shelter. If a father should be so hard-hearted as to 
turn his child out of doors and refuse to give it food, a 
stranger could take the child into his house and feed it 
and charge the father with the expense, and the law would 
compel the father to pay the bill. This duty of parents 
to support their children continues until the children are 
twenty-one years of age. After that time children may 
not look to their parents for support. It is not often that 
the law interferes with the parents in these matters; love 
alone is nearly always strong enough to hold them to their 
duty. 

(2) Education —A second duty which parents owe to 
their children is to educate them. In many of the coun¬ 
tries of Europe, and in most of the States of our own 
country, parents are compelled by law to send their chil¬ 
dren to school. In every State schools are provided for 


22 


EVERY-DAY GOVERNMENT 


children free of cost, and parents are expected to send 
their children to them. 

The Rights of Parents in Respect to their Children.— 

Parents have not duties only; they have rights also. 

(1) Obedience .—They have the right to the obedience 
of their children. The child must obey its parents in all 
reasonable commands. If it refuses to obey, it may be 
punished in such manner as the parents think fit. The 
punishment, however, must be reasonable; it must be such 
as not to endanger the health of the child or injure it in 
mind or body. 

(2) Service .—Parents have the right to the service of 
their children. Until children are of age they must work 
for their parents if their parents need their service. If 
they earn wages, their parents have a right to take their 
earnings. 

(3) Assistance in Old Age .—If the parents are old and 
poor and unable to take care of themselves, their children 
may be compelled to assist them. Just as parents are 
compelled to support the child when it is young and help¬ 
less, so the child is compelled to support its parents when 
they are old and helpless. 

Importance of the Family Government.—The govern¬ 
ment of the family is the smallest of the governments that 
we shall have to study, but it is not the least important. 
A town or State is simply a number of families bound to¬ 
gether, and if all the families of a town or of a State were 
well governed, there is no doubt that the town or the State 
itself would be well governed. You see how important, 


THE FAMILY 


23 


then, it is that we should do all in our power to make our 
homes what they should be. Children can serve their 
country simply by doing their duty in their homes. They 
can repay the love and sacrifice of their parents by loving 
and unselfish deeds. Brothers and sisters may bless their 
homes by living at peace with one another. We should 
never forget that the law of the home is the law of love, serv¬ 
ice , and sacrifice . 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. What is the average number of persons in a family in your neigh¬ 
borhood? (Find the number of persons in the families of your ac¬ 
quaintance and divide this number by the number of families.) 

2. Are parents responsible for the actions of their children? 

3. Who is the most unselfish member of the home? 

4. Is it a kindness for parents to live beyond their means for the 
sake of their children? 

5. Name some bad habits that children are guilty of in their homes. 

6. What sacrifices do parents make in order that their children may 
be kept at school? 

7. How may parents be repaid for these sacrifices? 

8. Make out a list of those virtues that are good for the home. 

9. (Not to be answered in the class but to be answered silently.) 
Are you doing what you can to make your home happy? Are you 
allowing jealousy to enter into your home life? Are you as unselfish 
in your home as you should be? Are you tyrannical and willful in your 
actions? 


IV. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SCHOOL 


“The school should be pervaded by a spirit of honesty and truth¬ 
fulness. It should inspire its pupils with a manly resistance to all 
temptations to deceive or be false.”— E. E. White. 

Pupils Should Know Something of School Government. 

—For several years you have attended school, and while in 
school you have found that you are under a government; 

that you cannot do 
as you please; that 
teachers and school 
officers regulate your 
conduct in many 
ways. This gov¬ 
ernment of the 
school, in the lives 
of young people, is 
next in importance 
to the government 
of the family. The 
present happiness, as well as the future welfare of pupils, 
depends in a large degree upon how the school which they 
attend is governed. Pupils, therefore, should understand 
something of the nature of school government. If you 
will study this subject carefully, you will understand your 
teachers better, and your school life may thereby be made 
24 



A Schoolhouse 


THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SCHOOL 


25 


pleasanter. Very frequently trouble arises in a school¬ 
room merely because the teacher and the pupils do not un¬ 
derstand each other. 

School Officers. —At the head of the school is a body of 
officials whose duty it is to appoint the teacher and super¬ 
vise the affairs of the school. This governing body may 
control only the one school, or it may control several. It 
is known by different names in different States. In some 
States it is called the School Committee; in others, the 
Board of School Trustees, or the Board of School Directors, 
or the Board of Education. In a few States it is called the 
Board of School Visitors. The governing body is either 
elected by the voters of the district or is appointed by 
some other authority. In all the States every public school 
has a set of officers,—whatever they may be called,—who 
exercise a very close and a very complete direction of its 
affairs. In other words, every school has its governors and 
its government. 

The Powers and Duties of School Officers.— The school 
officers have at their disposal for school purposes a cer¬ 
tain amount of money raised by taxation. With this 
money they pay the salary of the teachers, build and re¬ 
pair schoolhouses, furnish the schools with fuel, furniture, 
maps, books, and other supplies. They make rules for the 
government of teachers, and sometimes declare what stud¬ 
ies shall be taught. They may make rules for the govern¬ 
ment of pupils if they choose to do so, although generally 
they allow the teachers to make such rules. In all im¬ 
portant matters relating to the school the teachers must 


26 


EVERY-DAY GOVERNMENT 


consult the school officers. For example, a teacher may 
send an unruly pupil home for a short time, but he seldom 
has the power to expel the pupil; that is, it is only the 
school officers who may take away from the pupil entirely 
the right of coming to the school. These officers determine 
the hours of opening and closing school; they fix the lengths 
of recesses; they decide when a holiday may be given; 
they care for the health of the pupils. Thus we see that 
they play a most important part in the government of the 
school. 

The Teacher.—Next to the school officers in the gov¬ 
ernment of the school comes the teacher. So far as the 
pupils are concerned, the teacher is the real head of the 
school. The duty of the teacher is twofold,—he must 
teach, and he must govern. As there can be no good 
teaching where there is not good government, the teacher 
must make every effort to secure obedience and good 
habits in his pupils. In order to do this, he usually makes 
a set of rules for the guidance of the school. If these 
rules are just and reasonable, the pupils must obey them. 
If a pupil refuses to obey a proper rule, he may be pun¬ 
ished for his disobedience; if he persists in disobeying, he 
may be expelled from the school. 

What are some of the rules that a teacher may make 
and that pupils must obey? In the next lesson I shall men¬ 
tion a few of those rules that judges in courts of law have 
found reasonable and have upheld teachers in enforcing. 
The rules that will be mentioned are such as no pupil can 
safely disobey. 


THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SCHOOL 


27 


QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. What is the governing body of your school called? How is it 
chosen? What are the names of its members? Make out a list of its 
powers. 

2. Do you know the boundaries of your school district? Draw a 
map of the district, locating the schoolhouse. 

3. May a pupil living in one school district attend school in an¬ 
other? 

4. In many States children are compelled by law to attend school. 
Are they compelled in your State? Ought children to be compelled to 
go to school? Give reasons for your answer. 

5. Draw up a formal petition asking your School Board or Commit¬ 
tee to purchase something that your school needs. 

6. Is a pupil on his way to or from school under the government of 
the school or under the government of his parents? 


V. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SCHOOL ( Continued ) 


“The seven cardinal virtues of the school are regularity, punctu¬ 
ality, neatness, accuracy, silence, industry, and obedience.” 

— E. E. White. 


Rules that Pupils Must Obey: 

Rule I. Pupils must not be tardy .—“ Tardiness is 
a direct injury to the whole school. The confusion of 
hurrying to seats, gathering together of books, etc., by 
tardy ones, at a time when all should be at study, cannot 
fail to impede the progress of those who are regular and 
prompt in attendance. The rule requiring prompt and 
regular attendance is demanded for the good of the whole 
school. It is therefore a rule for the government of the 
school, and must be regarded as proper and reasonable.” 

Rule II. Pupils must conduct themselves properly while 

at school. —“ Henry H- was expelled from school by 

the Committee of Rockport, M-, for acts of misconduct, 

which consisted of whispering, laughing, acts of playful¬ 
ness and rudeness to other pupils, inattention to study, 
and conduct tending to cause confusion and distract the 
attention of other scholars from their studies and reci¬ 
tations.” Henry thought the expulsion was unjust, and 
brought suit against the Committee. The judge who tried 
his case thought that the boy was justly expelled, and 
decided in favor of the Committee. 


THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SCHOOL 


29 


Rule III. Pupils should he regular in attendance .— 
Pupils may be forbidden to remain absent from school 
without a satisfactory excuse. They may be required to 
bring written excuses for absence. On this rule a judge, 
delivering an opinion in court, said: “Continued or re¬ 
peated absences of one of a class are not only injurious to 
the absentee but, if allowed beyond a certain point, are 
calculated to demoralize those who attend and derange the 
orderly instruction of the teacher.” Notice that the judge 
was not so much interested in the boy who was absent as 
he was in the pupils who were regular in their attendance. 
It is the welfare of a whole school, and not the welfare of 
a single person, that must be considered when making a 
rule for the government of pupils. In what ways does 
absence interfere with the general work of the school? 

Rule IV. Pupils must not play truant .—When a 
child that has been sent to school by its parents does not 
come to school, it commits truancy, and this is an offense 
against good school government. In some States and in 
many cities truant officers are employed to follow up 
truants and bring them to school. Truancy is a grave 
fault, and pupils who commit it are liable to find them¬ 
selves in serious trouble. A judge in a court of law is 
usually severe with truants. What does the truant lose 
by remaining away from school? What does the school 
lose? 

Duties of Teachers and Pupils.—The few rules that 
have been given are such as have been found neces¬ 
sary in all schools. In all schools children must be punc- 


30 


EVERY-DAY GOVERNMENT 


tual, they must be obedient, they must be regular in their 
attendance, they must not play truant. Many other rules 
might be mentioned, but more are not necessary. After 
all, a school is not made good by rules. A good school is 
one in which both teachers and pupils try day by day to 
do their duty . What is meant by duty? What is it to do 
one’s duty? You do your duty when you do what your 
conscience tells you is right. Try to find out what is 
right, and when you have decided what is right, act for 
the right, and you have done your duty. It is sometimes 
hard to tell what is right and what is wrong, but some 
things are pretty clear. 

It is perfectly clear that it is the duty of the teacher to 
do the following things: 

(1) To prepare himself thoroughly in the subjects that 
he teaches. 

(2) To work hard for the advancement of all his pupils. 

(3) To treat his pupils with respect and kindness, and 
to extend to them, whenever he can, help and sympathy. 

(4) To set an example of right living. A bad man 
cannot be a good teacher. 

(5) To be punctual. A teacher cannot expect his pupils 
to be prompt if he allows himself to be tardy. 

(6) To be careful of his own health and of the health 
of his pupils. 

(7) To train his pupils in such habits as will make good 
men and women of them. 

These are a few of the duties of a teacher. Your teacher 
has doubtless thought much upon the subject of his duty, 


THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SCHOOL 


31 


and has perhaps read books upon the subject. It would 
not be strange if you have thought very little of your 
duty; yet as pupils you have your duties, and you ought 
to learn what they are and try to fulfill them. A few of 
the most important duties of pupils are: 

(1) To obey cheerfully the four rules that have been 
stated. 

(2) To avoid wasting their own time or the time of 
their fellow-pupils by whispering, passing notes, or mak¬ 
ing unnecessary noises in the schoolroom. 

(3) To be kind and respectful to their teachers and 
schoolmates. 

(4) To be truthful in all things. 

(5) To be loyal to the school and to support the teacher 
in his efforts to improve it. 

(6) To be neat and clean in dress and person. 

(7) To avoid speaking ill of their classmates. 

(8) To avoid slandering or misrepresenting the teacher. 

(9) To avoid bearing tales. 

(10) To refrain from cutting, marking, injuring, or de¬ 
facing school property. 

(11) To obey all signals promptly. 

(12) To conduct themselves properly on the way to 
and from school. 

There are, of course, other duties besides those men¬ 
tioned above. In the schoolroom, as elsewhere, there 
are constantly arising questions of duty that can be set¬ 
tled only by taking into consideration particular facts and 
circumstances. In all cases, however, the rule is the 


32 


EVERY-DAY GOVERNMENT 


same: Do right, forget self, and do what your conscience 
tells you to do. By following the path of duty a pupil 
will help to make his school what it ought to be—a place 
where the minds and hearts of boys and girls are trained 
for the highest manhood and womanhood. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. From the list of duties of pupils given in the lesson a most im¬ 
portant duty is omitted. What is the duty? 

2. Make a list of duties that parents owe to the school. 

3. Make a list of duties that teachers owe to parents. 

4. Name the qualities that teachers like in pupils. 

5. Name the qualities that pupils like in teachers. 

6. When things go wrong with pupils at home, do they ever take 
their spite out in the schoolroom? 

7. What does the word impartial mean? Can a teacher be per¬ 
fectly impartial? 

8. In your conduct towards your teachers and schoolmates, do 
you follow the “golden rule”? 

9. Discuss “cheating” and “copying.” 

10. Name some of the benefits of education. 


VI. CITIZENSHIP: WHO ARE CITIZENS 


“The ideal citizen is the man who believes that all men are brothers, 
and that the nation is merely an extension of his family, to be loved, 
respected, and cared for accordingly.”— Habberton. 

Introduction. —We have studied the government of the 
family and the government of the school, and have learned 
something of the rights and duties of the members of a 
household, and also something of the rights and duties of 
pupils and teachers. The governments that we shall study 
hereafter are those that we meet outside of the family 
and school. They are governments that include a much 
larger number of people than either the family or the 
school. A family seldom consists of more than a dozen 
persons, while the school seldom numbers more than sev¬ 
eral hundred pupils. But the larger governments that 
you will be interested in when you go out from school con¬ 
sist of many thousands, and some of them of millions, of 
people. They are governments, therefore, far more diffi¬ 
cult to understand than that of the family or the school. 

We shall be able to understand the workings of the 
larger governments better if we first learn something about 
the subject of citizenship. Since this is a very great sub¬ 
ject it will take several lessons to dispose of it properly. 

Meaning of the Word “ Citizen.”— Let us begin our 
study of the great subject of citizenship by trying to 
learn what is meant by the word citizen. In the strict 
F, Civil Govt.—3 33 


34 


CITIZENSHIP 


meaning of the word a citizen used to be one who had the 
rights and privileges of an inhabitant of a city; but the 
word now means more than this. A citizen is one who has 
the rights and privileges of the inhabitants of a State 
or nation. As a member of the family you have certain 
rights and duties under the family government; as a 
member of a school you have certain rights and duties 
under the government of the school; and so, as one of the 
inhabitants of a nation, you have certain rights and duties 
under the government of that nation. 

Any one born in a country is a citizen of that country. 
If you were born in the United States, you are a citizen 
of the United States. The rank of citizen does not belong 
to grown men and women alone, for children are as truly 
citizens as their parents are. To be a citizen is simply to 
be a recognized member of a community, and one test of 
such membership is birth within the community. 

Aliens.—But there are many people among us who 
were not born in the United States. Thousands come to 
our shores every week from foreign countries. A foreigner 
is a citizen of another country, and is for that reason called 
an alien , a word which means another. Aliens have not so 
many rights and privileges as citizens have. In nearly all 
the States they are not allowed to vote, and in some States 
they are not allowed to hold land in their own names. As 
they are citizens of another country it is not just that 
they should share all the privileges of citizens of this 
country. A person cannot be a citizen of two different 
countries at the same time. 


WHO ARE CITIZENS 


35 


Naturalization. —Many of the aliens living among us con¬ 
tinue to be citizens of the country in which they were born. 
Yet if they so desire they can be naturalized, that is, they 
can be made citizens of our country by a process of law 
called naturalization. Before an alien can be naturalized, 
he must have lived five years in this country. 

An alien who wishes to be naturalized must first go into 
some court of law and declare upon oath before a judge that 



Immigrants Arriving at Ellis Island, New York 


he intends to become a citizen of the United States. This 
is called “ declaring his intention.” Not less than two 
years nor more than seven years after he has declared 
his intention, the alien must again appear in court and 
swear that he renounces forever all allegiance to any 
foreign country and especially to the country of which 
he is at the time a citizen. He must also swear to sup¬ 
port the Constitution of the United States. If the judge 
finds that the alien is able to speak the English language 
and write his own name, that he has resided in the United 














36 


CITIZENSHIP 


States for five years, and that he is a person of good moral 
character, the alien will then be declared to be a citizen 
of the United States and will have the same rights as 
native-born citizens, except that he can never become the 
President or Vice President of the United States. 

There are certain classes of aliens who are not allowed 
to be naturalized, no matter how long they may live here. 
Alien Chinese and Japanese cannot be naturalized and 
therefore cannot become citizens of the United States. 
Anarchists—persons opposed to all forms of organized 
government—are also refused the gift of naturalization. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. What is the difference between a citizen and a subject? 

2. What is an immigrant? An emigrant? 

3. What is meant by the word allegiance? 

4. What body makes the rules governing the process of naturaliza¬ 
tion? (Examine the Constitution of the United States, Art. 1, Section 8, 
Clause 4.) 

5. Do you think these rules are wise and just? Would it be right 
to require that aliens, before they are naturalized, should be able to 
read the Constitution that they swear to support? 

6. What is meant by the word expatriation ? Should a person be 
allowed to expatriate himself in time of war? 

7. Are there many foreigners (aliens) in your neighborhood? If so, 
of what countries are they citizens? 

8. Would you make it easier or more difficult for foreigners to be 
naturalized? 


VII. CITIZENSHIP: CIVIL RIGHTS 


•‘What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is folly, 
vice, and madness ."—Edmund Burke. 

Civil and Political Rights.— We shall now learn of 
those rights of which American citizens are so proud. 
The rights of the citizen may be divided into two classes: 
(1) his civil rights, and (2) his political rights. Civil rights 
are those that are enjoyed by all citizens, whether men, 
women, or children. Political rights are such as adult citi¬ 
zens have of sharing in government. Thus the right to 
vote and the right to hold office are political rights. In 
this lesson and in the next we shall learn of civil rights. 
Nearly all civil rights are possessed by aliens as well as by 
citizens. 

The Right to Personal Security is the right to be secure 
from injury to body or to health. If a person is attacked, 
if violent hands are laid upon him, he can call upon the gov¬ 
ernment to defend him. Policemen, sheriffs, and constables 
are employed at public expense to secure citizens from 
harm. If a citizen is attacked, and he cannot get the im¬ 
mediate aid of an officer, he has the right to defend himself. 
If a burglar breaks into a house at night, the occupant of the 
house, in defense of himself and family, may lawfully kill 
him. If a citizen is threatened harm by a person, he may 
have the one who threatens him taken before a magistrate 
and bound with sureties to keep the peace. If the health 
37 


38 


CITIZENSHIP 


of citizens is threatened by some nuisance, as by poisonous 
fumes from a factory, or by a careless accumulation of filth, 
the citizens may call upon the government to have the 
nuisance removed or abated. In these and in many other 
ways the government cares for the personal safety and 
happiness of the citizen. 

Personal Liberty; Habeas Corpus.—Another right that 

all citizens enjoy is the right of personal liberty. By this 
is meant the right to move about freely from place to 
place without hindrance, to choose a place of residence, 
and to engage in whatever occupation one may see fit. 
Of course while you are under the charge of your parents 
you cannot enjoy this right so fully as you will when you 
shall come of age. 

The right of personal liberty is one of the most valuable 
rights that free men possess. In olden times a powerful 
man could throw a humble man into a dungeon and 
keep him there as long as he desired. In our day such a 
wrong cannot be inflicted upon a citizen. No citizen in 
this country may be imprisoned by a private person, nor 
may any one be imprisoned at all without just cause. If 
a person is thrown into prison, or is put into confinement 
against his will, he has the right to a writ of habeas corpus. 
Every one should know something of this famous writ, for 
it is the greatest safeguard of personal liberty. 

Let us see what the writ of habeas corpus is and what it 
does for the citizen. Suppose you are thrown into prison 
unjustly, or that you are confined in some place against 
your will; how shall you get out? Somebody who is in- 


CIVIL RIGHTS 


39 


terested in you, perhaps it will be a lawyer, will go at once 
to a judge of a court and ask that you be taken out of 
prison immediately and brought before a judge in order 
that your case may be heard. The judge is bound to 
grant this request; he is bound to have you brought be¬ 
fore him at once. He at once issues a writ of habeas cor¬ 
pus. This writ is an order to the sheriff, or whoever it is 
that is keeping you in confinement, to bring you before the 
court. When you are brought before the judge, if it is 
found that you are wrongfully confined, you are restored 
to your freedom. If the judge should find that there is 
good reason for believing you have committed a crime, he 
will send you back to jail to await a regular trial. Thus 
we see that the writ of habeas corpus gives quick relief to 
a person who has been unjustly imprisoned. In times of 
war or great public danger, this writ may be suspended, 
and when it is suspended it may happen that a citizen 
may be confined in prison for no cause whatever. 

The Right of Private Property. —A citizen has the 
right to hold property in his own name, and the govern¬ 
ment must protect him in the enjoyment of this property. 
If any one attempts to deprive a man of something that he 
lawfully owns, the government will come to the aid of the 
owner and will punish the offender. If a mob burns down 
a house, or in some other way destroys property, the local 
government can sometimes be compelled to make good 
the loss to the owner. It is the duty of the government 
to protect property, as it is the duty of the government to 
protect life and liberty. 


40 


CITIZENSHIP 


Besides the right to enjoy in peace the property one 
owns, one has the right to acquire more property by 
labor or by trade or by the exercise of one’s talents. 
This right of acquiring property is sometimes abused. In 
the pursuit of wealth a man has no moral right to disre- 
gard the just rights of others. Too often men think only 
of themselves and do not hesitate to take for themselves 
what in strict right belongs to some one else. But no 
truly good citizen will do this. A good citizen will follow 
the rule: Render unto others their due. We cannot all 
be rich, but we can all be honest and just. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Read Green’s “Short History of the English People,” chapter III, 
and prepare a composition on “ King John and the Great Charter.” 

2. What do the words habeas corpus mean? What does the constitu¬ 
tion of your State say about the writ of habeas corpus? 

3. A farmer shot and seriously injured a boy who was in his tree 
stealing chestnuts. Ought the farmer to have been punished for this 
act? 

4. What rights are declared in the Declaration of Independence? 


VIII. CITIZENSHIP: CIVIL RIGHTS (Continued) 

“Liberty is part of the precious heritage which our God brought 
down with him from heaven to the earth and left to us, his sons. Let 
no one therefore marvel that we should hold it beyond all price, dearer 
to us than our lives .”—Cardinal Gibbons. 

The Right of Religious Freedom. —The American citi¬ 
zen is free to worship God according to the dictates of his 
own conscience. In some of the countries of the world 
the citizens are compelled to help in the support of some 
particular church known as the Established Church, but 
in the United States the government has nothing what¬ 
ever to do with religion. You can choose your own church 
and can give towards its support as much or as little as 
it suits you to give. You may believe and worship as you 
please without losing any of your rights as a citizen, 
although in a few States a person must believe in a God 
or he will not be allowed to hold certain offices. Perhaps 
there is no country in the world where the citizens enjoy 
greater freedom in religious matters than is enjoyed in 
America. 

The Right of Freedom of Speech. —As a citizen you are 
free to speak and write on any subject, but you must not 
abuse this right. If you slander a person, you take from 
him his good name, and that is much worse than it would 
be to take from him his coat or his watch. So our free¬ 
dom of speech will not permit us to slander our neighbor 
41 


42 


CITIZENSHIP 


or talk about him in such a way as to lower his standing 
in the community. The government will defend a person’s 
reputation as faithfully as it defends a person’s property, 
and courts will award damages for slander as quickly as for 
destroying property. 

The Right of Freedom of the Press.—Along with the 

right of free speaking goes the right of free printing. A 
citizen is free to print and publish his sentiments and 
thoughts on any subject, and no law will take this right 
away from him. But here again the privilege must not 
be abused. If a person publishes false and malicious state¬ 
ments about another he is guilty of an offense known as 
libel, and the laws regard libel as a crime and will punish 
it as such. Very often the newspapers in their criticisms 
of people go too far, and sometimes it seems that the free¬ 
dom of the press is really a bad thing. But as a matter of 
fact our free press, in spite of its shortcomings, is one of 
our greatest blessings. If we should take away from the 
newspapers their freedom to print what they please, we 
should do great harm to all kinds of freedom. A free press 
means a free country. 

The Right of Assembly.—American citizens have the 
tight to come together and discuss in public such ques¬ 
tions as they may care to discuss. At their meetings the 
people are free to express their views and declare their 
purposes fully and freely. Public meetings, however, must 
not be violent or disorderly, and they must not lead to 
violence or lawlessness. If a number of citizens should 
come together for the purpose of making plans to over- 


CIVIL RIGHTS 


43 


throw the government, the police would interfere and 
break up the meeting. 

The Right of Petition. —A citizen has the right to be 
heard on all questions concerning the public welfare. If 
you tliink a certain law ought to be passed you have a 
right to ask the lawmaking body to pass it. If you think 
the government should follow a certain course of action 
you have a right to make known your wishes and desires 
to the officers of government. In making your petition, 
however, you must be quiet and peaceable and must do 
nothing disorderly and unlawful. 

The Right of Protection in the Home. —The American 
citizen is protected in the enjoyment of his home. No 
soldier in time of peace may be quartered in any house 
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war ex¬ 
cept in a lawful manner. Soldiers, in other words, are not 
allowed to enter a home and disregard its sacred privi¬ 
leges. 

Nor may officers of government disregard the sacred 
character of the home. People are secure in their homes 
against unreasonable searches, and no officer may enter 
a house for the purpose of searching it unless he has a 
warrant written out by the proper magistrate. And no 
magistrate is allowed to issue a warrant for searching a 
man’s house unless there is good evidence to show that 
the house ought to be searched. There are times, it is 
true, when a man’s house may be entered without a writ¬ 
ten warrant, as when a cry of murder is heard within, 
or when it is known that a criminal is concealed within, 


44 


CITIZENSHIP 


but, generally speaking, a man’s house is his castle and 
no person may enter that castle without a proper war¬ 
rant. 

The Right of Due Process of Law.—No citizen of the 

United States can be deprived of his life, his liberty, or his 
property without due process of law. What is meant by 
due process of law is not very easy to learn, for each of the 
States has its own law, and what is due process in one 
State may not be due process in another. Still if you will 
read carefully the fifth, sixth, and eighth amendments to 
the Constitution of the United States you can form a very 
good notion of the rights that come to you through the 
right of due process of law; for there are similar provisions 
also in the constitutions of the States. According to these 
amendments— 

(1) A person accused of a serious crime must first be in¬ 
dicted by a grand jury and then be tried by a petit jury. 1 

(2) In cases where the punishment is death, a person 
shall not be tried twice for the same offense. 

(3) A person shall not be compelled to be a witness 
against himself. 

(4) A person accused of a crime must be informed of 
the nature and cause of the accusation, must be brought 
face to face with his accusers, must have power to bring 
into court witnesses in his favor, and must have a lawyer 
to defend him. 

(5) Excessive bail 1 shall not be required, excessive 

1 The jury system is explained on pages 146-148; bail on page 
145. 


CIVIL RIGHTS 


45 


fines shall not be imposed, cruel and unusual punishments 
shall not be inflicted. 

The Right to Equal Protection of the Laws.—The gov¬ 
ernment in its dealing with persons must treat all alike. 
It must not make fish of one and fowl of another. All 
persons, whether they be black or white, rich or poor, huirn 
ble or high, citizen or alien, are equal in the eye of the law 
and must receive the equal protection of the laws. 

The Right of Protection on the High Seas and in For¬ 
eign Lands.—In whatever part of the world an American 
citizen may go, whether he is out on the ocean or in China 
or Persia or Denmark, his citizenship goes with him to 
protect and defend him. When you are in a foreign 
country you must abide by the laws of that country, but 
if the government of a foreign country should treat you 
unjustly the United States would stretch out its powerful 
arm to protect you. 


EXERCISES 

1. Memorize: 

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, 

Is the immediate jewel of their souls; 

Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing; 

’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands; 

But he that filches from me my good name 
Robs me of that which not enriches him, 

And makes me poor indeed.— Shakespeare. 

2. Read Green’s “ Short History of the English People,” chapter VIII, 
and write a composition on “ King Charles I and the Rights of the 
People.” 

3. Make out a list of the rights of citizenship mentioned in Les¬ 
sons VII and VIII; arrange these rights in the order of their impor¬ 
tance, placing the most important right first. 


IX. CITIZENSHIP: WHO ARE VOTERS 


“Voters are the uncrowned kings who rule the nation.”— Morgan. 

The Right of Suffrage.—Civil rights, we have learned, 
are those rights enjoyed by all citizens, old and young, 
rich and poor, educated and ignorant. Political rights are 
enjoyed only by those citizens who are old enough and 
wise enough to exercise them properly. 

The greatest political right -of citizens is the right of 
suffrage. The word suffrage is derived from a Latin word 
which originally meant a piece of a broken pot; for in olden 
times a man was voted for by casting for him potsherds, or 
pieces of broken pottery, instead of ballots. The right of 
suffrage is the right of voting. Voters are sometimes called 
electors , that is, choosers. To vote is to express a choice for 
this or that person for an office, or for the enactment of this 
or that law. 

The Qualifications of Voters.—What citizens are voters? 
Answers to this question will be different in the different 
States. For the right of voting is in many ways controlled 
by the State. When dealing with the right of suffrage, 
however, there are two things the State cannot do. First, 
it cannot deprive a citizen of the right to vote because he 1 

1 Frequently in this lesson, as in other lessons of this book, a word 
of the masculine gender is used when both masculine and feminine 
genders are meant. 

46 




WHO ARE VOTERS 


47 


belongs to a certain race, or is of a certain color, or be¬ 
cause he was once held as a slave. Second, the State 
cannot deny the right of suffrage on account of sex; 
that is, the right to vote must be given to-men and 
women on equal terms. If we except these two things, 
we may say that the State is free to fix the qualifica¬ 
tions, or marks of fitness, that citizens must have before 
they are allowed to vote. These qualifications usually 
are: 

(1) Age .—To be a voter one must be at least twenty- 
one years of age. It is thought that a person younger 
than this does not know enough to vote intelligently, 
and such is usually the fact. 

(2) Residence .—A citizen may not vote until he has 
lived a certain time in the State, and in the city or 
county in which he desires to cast his vote. A stranger 
coming into a place should not be allowed to take a part 
in its government until he has first had time to inform 
himself upon public matters. For this reason every 
State requires that a citizen shall “gain a residence” 
before he is permitted to vote. In a few States he 
must wait two years before he can vote, in most of the 
others one year, but in some States a residence of only 
six months is required. 

(3) Property; Poll Tax .—In times past a citizen 
was not allowed to vote unless he was the owner of a 
certain amount of property, but in our day a man or 
woman may vote even though the owner of no property 
at all. In a few States there is a small poll tax that 
every citizen of age must pay, no matter how poor he 
may be. If this poll tax is not paid, the right to vote 


48 


CITIZENSHIP 


is withheld. If we except this poll tax, the right to 
vote is given to all without any expense. 

(4) Education .—In most of the States the right to 
vote is given to the ignorant as well as to the educated. 
A person may not be able to read or write his name, and 
yet may vote. Of course such a person selddm knows 
what he is doing; he cannot make an intelligent choice; 
he either votes blindly or he votes as some one tells him. 
Several States demand that a person shall be able to 
read and write before he is allowed to vote. 

Persons Who May Not Vote.—There are several 
classes of men and women who may not vote, although 
they are old enough and have lived in the State as long 
as is required by law: 

(1) Aliens .—We have learned what is meant by the 
word alien. When an alien has been naturalized, that 
is, when he has been made a citizen, he then has the 
right to vote. This is the general rule, although a 
State may, if it sees fit, allow an alien to vote, and it 
may refuse to allow a person who has been naturalized 
the right to vote. Some States give the suffrage to 
declarants, that is, to aliens who have declared their 
intention to become citizens (p. 34). 

(2) Criminals .—A criminal, that is, a person who has 
been convicted of theft, or murder, or arson, or some 
other crime, is not allowed to vote. But if a person 
who was once imprisoned for crime, has been lawfully 
pardoned, the right of suffrage in most cases is restored 
to him with his freedom. 

(3) Idiots , lunatics , and imbeciles are not allowed to 
vote. 


WHO ARE VOTERS 


49 


(4) Paupers .—-As a rule paupers supported in an alms¬ 
house at the expense of the public are not allowed to vote. 

Registration.—In nearly every State a person who wishes 
to vote must first have his name registered, that is, he 
must have it properly enrolled in the list of voters. In 
every voting district there is a Board of Registrars, con¬ 
sisting of two or more persons, whose duty it is to make 
out a list of the names of all citizens in the district who 
have a right to vote. As a rule, one wishing to vote must 
appear before the Registrars several weeks before election 
day and state his name, age, birthplace, and where he 
lives. If the Registrars find that he has all the qualifi¬ 
cations of a voter, his name will be enrolled upon the vot¬ 
ing list—he will be registered. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Ought it to be required of a voter that he own a certain amount of 
property? 

2. Ought it to be required of a voter that he be able to read and 
write? 

3. For what reason is the right of voting withheld from paupers? 

4. Do you feel that you could now vote intelligently? 

5. State accurately the qualifications for voting in your State. (Ex¬ 
amine your State constitution.) 

6. Is registration required in your State? In all voting districts, or 
only in cities of more than a certain population? (Examine the Elec¬ 
tion Law of your State.) 

7. Discuss the words elector, resident, inhabitant, denizen, citizen. 


F. Civil Govt.—4 


X. CITIZENSHIP: ELECTIONS 


“The proudest now is but ray peer, 

The highest not more high; 

To-day, of all the weary year, 

A king of men am I. 

To-day, alike are great and small, 

The nameless and the known; 

My palace is the people’s hall, 

The ballot box my throne!”— Whittier. 

At the Polls.—On election day every qualified citizen 
should go to the polls and vote. The polls are simply a 
room where several election officers meet for the pur¬ 
pose of receiving and counting the ballots of the voters 
of an election district. When a voter enters the polls, 
he gives his name to the officers, who have the registra¬ 
tion list before them. When his name is found on the 
list, it is checked off, and a ballot is given to him. A ballot 
is a slip or sheet of paper upon which are printed the 
names of the political parties and the names of their 
candidates for election. The voter takes his ballot and 
passes into a small booth where he cannot be seen by 
any one. In the booth he finds writing material and a 
shelf or desk on which he may write. After he has marked 
his ballot in a way that shows how he wishes to vote, the 
voter folds his ballot so that the marks cannot be seen. 
He then returns to the place where the officers sit, and his 
ballot is put into a large box, which is usually made of glass. 

The foregoing is the method of voting followed in most 
50 


ELECTIONS 


51 


States. It is known as the “ Australian System/’ because 
it was first adopted in Australia. In some States there 
is a separate ballot for the candidates of each party; the 
voter is given a set of these ballots, and goes into the booth 
to make his choice, or to write a new ballot. The Aus¬ 
tralian system is the best method of voting that has thus 



The Polls 

far been tried, except perhaps the voting machine, which' 
likewise provides for a secret vote. Voting machines are 
coming into use in some States. 

A long time ago men used to vote by calling out in a 
loud voice the name of their favorite candidate. But 
this method often led to quarrels and fights, and it had 
to be abandoned. The open ballot was then tried. By 
this method the voter cast his ballot before the judges 





































52 


CITIZENSHIP 


and bystanders in such an open way that any one who 
desired could see how he had voted. This led to bribery. 
A sum of money would be given the voter for voting in a 
certain way, and the man who gave him the money would 
follow him up to the polls, and watch him to see that he 
voted the way he was paid to vote. The open ballot also 
led to intimidation. The voter was frequently afraid to 
vote the way he would like to, lest he might offend an 
employer or some one else whom he could ill afford to 
offend. For such reasons as these voting by open ballot be¬ 
came unpopular, and the Australian or secret ballot system 
was adopted. This system has its disadvantages. It does 
not encourage men to come out openly and fearlessly and 
announce their convictions. Under the secret ballot law 
a man by guarding his tongue and not letting any one 
know how he votes, may deprive the community of the 
influence of his example. It would be better if we could 
always know how good citizens vote. 

The great point in favor of the secret ballot is that it 
helps to do away with bribery. Under the Australian 
system it is of little use to give the voter money to vote 
a certain ticket, for there is no way to follow him up and 
see if he votes as he promises. If the secret ballot does 
prevent bribery, then every State ought to have it, for 
bribery is one of the worst evils in politics. A man who 
gives a bribe to his fellow-citizen, not only debases that 
citizen, but he debauches society. A bribe giver is a public 
enemy. What shall we say of a bribe taker? Is he better 
or worse than a bribe giver? 


ELECTIONS 


53 


Counting the Vote; Majority, Plurality.—Immediately 
after the polls are closed the counting of the votes be¬ 
gins. The counting is done openly in the presence of 
a number of people. The candidate for each office who 
has the largest number of votes is declared elected. Some¬ 
times a majority of the votes is required to elect. By a 
majority is meant more than half of all the votes cast. It 
often happens, when there are three or more candidates 
for the same office, that no one has a hiajority of all the 
votes. In such cases if a majority is necessary for election 
there must be a second election. But in most of the States 
the one who has the highest number of votes is the suc¬ 
cessful candidate, even if that number is less than half. 
Election by the highest number of votes is called election 
by 'plurality . 

The Right of Holding Office.—Besides the right of 
choosing officers to conduct government, it is the right 
of the American citizen to hold office. The business of 
government requires the service of a very large number 
of people. In the towns or counties there must be road 
commissioners, school trustees, tax collectors, constables. 
In a city there must be a Mayor and councilmen and a 
very long list of officials. In the State there must be a 
Governor, several secretaries, and the Legislature with its 
senators and its representatives or delegates. In the Na¬ 
tion there Is the President with his cabinet and thousands of 
assistants. It would take many pages merely to name the 
different offices of the different governments. It is the 
boast of the American citizen that, no matter what his 


54 


CITIZENSHIP 


rank may be, he has the right to hold any of these offices. 
Any one born in the United States may hope to become 
President. It is true that only four or five of the millions 
of young Americans now living can ever be President, 
yet it is also true that those who will be our future Presi¬ 
dents may come from the lower walks of life. We have 
had several Presidents who did manual labor in early life. 
One of them was a tailor who did not learn to write until 
after he was married. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Smith, Jones, and Brown are candidates for an office. Smith re¬ 
ceives 5000 votes, Jones 4000 votes, and Brown 3000 votes. Does Smith 
have a majority or a plurality of votes? What is the smallest number 
of votes that would elect in this case if a majority were required? 
What does the word minority mean? 

2. Discuss the evil effects of bribery. 

3. Should the office seek the man, or the man the office? 

4. Do you know any candidates for office? Are they men or women 
well qualified for the positions they are seeking? 

5. “ A weapon that comes down as still 

As snowflakes fall upon the sod 
But executes a freeman’s will 
As lightning does the will of God.” 

What is the “weapon”? Memorize the quotation. 

6. Bound the election district or precinct in which you live. 

7. Secure, if you can, a ballot used at an election, and mark it as 
you would if you were going to vote. 

8. Discuss methods of preventing bribery. Would you vote for a 
man who would give bribes? 

9. In what ways are men sometimes bribed without giving them 
money? 

10. Ought candidates for public office to give an account of their 
election expenses? 


XI. CITIZENSHIP: DUTIES OF CITIZENS 


u Do what conscience says is right, 

Do what reason says is best, 

Do with all your mind and might, 

Do your duty and be blest.” 

A Few Words about Duty. —For several lessons we 
have been discussing the rights of citizens; in this lesson 
we shall speak of a few of the duties of citizens. We are 
all inclined to think too much of our rights and too little 
of our duties. We should never forget that for every right 
we enjoy there is a corresponding duty. A right has been 
called the reward of a duty fulfilled, and this is the way 
to regard duty. After we have done our duty, then we 
may claim our rights; after we have fulfilled the duties of 
citizenship, we may in good conscience claim our rights as 
citizens. Government cannot give to us more than we 
give to it. If we are careless or selfish in respect to our 
duties to our government, we may be sure that it will not 
have so many blessings for us as it would have if we were 
watchful and faithful in our duty. Let us now learn what 
duty requires of all good citizens. 

Obedience to the Law. —The first duty of a citizen is to 
obey the laws of his country. Without obedience to law 
there can be no such thing as good government. Alike in 
the home, in the school, and in the State, the violation of 
law is attended with some kind of punishment. When a 
55 


56 


CITIZENSHIP 


law of the State is broken, he who breaks it may be fined, 
that is, he may be compelled to give up a sum of money, 
or he may be imprisoned, or he may be both fined and im¬ 
prisoned. In the case of murder, he who takes the life of 
another may be compelled to give up his own life. But I 
do not wish to hold up the punishments of the law before 
you in order to frighten you. I do not want you to obey 
the law simply because you are afraid of the punishment 
that would follow if you should break it. People who 
obey a law through the sense of fear are likely to break 
it if they think they will not be discovered. Such people 
are satisfied if only they can keep out of jail. It is against 
the law to give a man money for his vote; yet how many 
citizens violate this law simply because they run but little 
risk of being detected and punished! A bribe giver is no 
less a criminal because he escapes punishment. Laws 
should be obeyed because it is a duty to obey them. It 
is our right to seek the protection of the law; it is our duty 
to do the bidding of the law. 

Defense of One’s Country. —A most serious duty of 
the citizen to his government is to defend it against its 
enemies. You boys may at some time in your life be 
called upon to take up arms and fight for your country. 
If such a time should come, you should not flinch, but 
should go forth bravely to the battlefield, prepared to 
lay down your life, if necessary. But you should not 
wish for war or try to stir up strife. The good citizen 
will try to avoid war. Men and nations should live at 
peace with one another; war is never right unless it is 


DUTIES OF CITIZENS 


57 


waged for the purpose of making the world better in the 
end. 

Earning a Living.—Every citizen should try to earn 
an honest living for himself and those dependent upon 
him. A man who does not work is a burden upon the 
community. What he eats and wears is produced by the 
labor of other people. Now, an able-bodied man who 
lives upon the labor of others loses his own self-respect 
and deserves to lose the respect of others. Hence a good 
citizen will refuse to eat bread that he has not earned, 
if it is possible for him to earn bread for himself. Some¬ 
times men cannot earn their own living because they can¬ 
not find work to do. When this is the case, there is some¬ 
thing wrong somewhere, and it is the duty of good citizens 
to try to discover where the wrong is and to take measures 
to remedy the wrong. In a land of plenty no strong-armed 
man, willing to work, ought to be compelled to go hungry 
or to eat the bread of charity. 

The Duty of Studying Political Questions. —Before 
you enter upon politics you should make a careful study 
of political questions. As a voter you will be called upon 
to do work upon a great political machine, for that is 
what the American government is. Ought you not to be 
prepared for this work? Ought you not to understand this 
machine? A person would not begin to work on a watch 
until he had studied carefully the workings of a watch. 
Neither should a person meddle with the American gov¬ 
ernment until he knows something about its workings, 
for it is a machine much more complicated and difficult 


58 


CITIZENSHIP 


to understand than a watch. It has big wheels and little 
wheels and wheels within wheels curiously and nicely 
fitted together, each doing its own work, doing it well 
when voters are wise, doing it ill when voters are foolish. 
Is it not plain, then, that you ought to begin at once to 
study this machine so that when you begin to operate it 
you will know something of its workings? 

While you are at school you may prepare yourselves 
to vote in an intelligent manner when you come of age. 
You may do this in two ways,—by reading and by dis¬ 
cussion. Read history. You cannot understand the pres¬ 
ent without understanding the past. Read the lives of 
great men. The founders of our government were un¬ 
selfish men. Read what they wrote about government 
and learn what they did for their country. Read the his¬ 
tory of political parties and study their platforms. Read 
works upon government. Read good newspapers and 
Inform yourselves of the political questions of the day. 

But reading is not enough. Along with reading must 
go discussion. Our government is founded upon free and 
open discussion. This is why citizens are guaranteed 
freedom of speech. By talking over a question in a good- 
natured way with friends we learn a number of things. 
In the first place, we learn more about the question under 
discussion. We almost always find that our friend knows 
something about it that we did not know. Then we learn 
to express our thoughts more clearly and forcibly. We 
never know a thing well enough until we can tell it to 
some one else. Discussion also teaches us to have respect 


DUTIES OF CITIZENS 


59 


for the opinions of other people; and this is very good 
for us. Above all, discussion is good because it leads to 
the truth. 

The Duties of Voters. —When you come to vote you 
will be glad to have studied political questions, for in 
the polling booth you will find yourself face to face with 
duties which, if you fulfill them properly, will require 
all the knowledge you may have gained. What are these 
duties? If an intelligent voter will ask himself the ques¬ 
tion seriously he will conclude that he ought at least to 
do the following things: 

(1) To vote whenever it is his privilege to vote. 

(2) To vote only for honest men and women for office. 

(3) To accept no bribe and to give no bribe. 

(4) To know what he is voting for. 

(5) To know something of the character of the person 
for whom he votes. 

(6) To prefer his country to his party. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Can you name a war that was a blessing to mankind? One that 
was a curse? 

2. Would you fight for your country, even if you thought it was 
in the wrong? 

3. Should a citizen obey a bad law? Who shall judge whether a law 
is bad or good? 

4. Explain how a single vote may decide the result of an election. 

5. What are some of the things a politician must do? 

6. Would you vote for your party even if you thought it was 
wrong? 

7. Of the duties mentioned in the lesson which stands first in im¬ 
portance? Which stands second? Which third? Which fourth? 


XII. THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT: MAJORITY 
RULE 


“ That government of the people, by the people, for the people shall 
not perish from the earth .”—Abraham Lincoln. 

Introduction. —Now that we have learned what citi¬ 
zenship is and what are the rights and duties of the citi¬ 
zen, we may begin to study the workings of the govern¬ 
ment which it is the duty of citizens to operate and keep 
in repair. And first I want you to learn something about 
the powers of the American government. When an officer, 
perhaps a man of small stature, lightly lays his hand upon 
the shoulder of a big powerful man and tells him to “ come 
along,” why does the big man instantly obey? From 
what source does the officer derive his power? When a 
body of lawmakers makes a law that no wooden buildings 
shall be erected in a certain part of a city, why do the land- 
owners there submit and build no houses of wood on their 
land? Where do the lawmakers get their power to make 
the law? A judge sentences a man to die, and in a few 
days or in a few weeks the poor wretch is hurried to his 
doom. Where does the judge get such power? Such ques¬ 
tions as these, questions about the power of government, are 
of the greatest importance and should receive your most 
careful attention. 

The Power of the People.— In the olden times it was 
60 


MAJORITY RULE 


61 


thought that government came down to men from heaven 
and that rulers received their offices and their power from 
God. Only a little more than two hundred years ago a 
great English writer published a book in which there was 
a picture representing Government as a mighty giant 
with a crown on his head, hovering over the earth and 



An Ancient Notion of Government 


ruling it with staff and sword. Such a picture would not 
represent government to-day. In our day government 
is very close to men and is looked upon as a purely human 
affair. Men plan and build government somewhat as they 
plan and build houses and battle ships. In this planning 












62 


THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT 


and building the people take a part. Especially is this 
true in our country. In the United States the people are 
the complete masters of government. All power flows 
from them. How do the people manage to make their 
wants known? By the principle of majority rule . When 
a public question is to be settled or an officer is to be 
chosen, an orderly vote of the people is taken, and the 
largest number of votes decides the question or elects 
the officer; that is to say, the majority rules. 

Where government is carried on by the principle of 
majority rule we have a democracy , a word which means 
“ government by the people.” The United States is a 
democracy, because it is governed by the people. When 
we say this, we mean of course the political people, the 
voters. The voters express their wishes, and the will of the 
majority is regarded as the will of all and is the law of the 
land. This is what majority rule means and is what democ¬ 
racy means. So while studying the simple little contriv¬ 
ance of majority rule we are brought face to face with the 
greatest and noblest of all political themes—democracy. 

Democracy a Government of Reason.—In the first 
place you should understand that democracy means some¬ 
thing more than the counting of votes Democracy is a 
government of reason. Suppose a ball team wanted to 
decide whether or not a game should be played with a 
team in an adjoining town; would it do nothing but take 
a vote on the question? No; that would be very stupid. 
Before the vote was taken the subject would be talked 
over: the strength of the rival team would be discussed; 


MAJORITY RULE 


68 


previous engagements would be considered; the expense 
of the trip would be taken into account. After these and 
other matters were fully considered the vote would be 
taken and the result would depend upon the points brought 
out by the speakers. That would be the right kind of 



majority rule, for it would be government by discussion, 
it would be the rule of reason. 

Some boys are playing at push ball. One boy pushes 
south with a force, we will say, of 75 pounds; a second 
boy pushes north with a force of 125 pounds; a third 
boy pushes east with a force of 100 pounds; a fourth boy, 
more powerful than the rest, pushes west with a force 
of 150 pounds. The ball does not move directly south, 
north, east, or west, but yields a little to each boy. The 
strongest boy, however, does the most in directing the 





64 


THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT 


course of the ball. Now our government is in many 
respects like a push ball that is being worked at by a 



great number of boys pushing in different directions. 
Many millions of voters are working at the American 
government, some wanting it to do this, others wanting it 
to do that, others wanting it to do still something else. It 
cannot obey fully the wishes of any single voter. All 
it can do is to yield a little to each voter and do that 
which will most nearly please the largest number of voters. 

In the case of the push ball, you noticed—and this is 
very important—that the general movement of the ball 
was determined by the strongest boy, the boy who pushed 
toward the west having more to do with the movement 
than any of the others. In the case of the government 
it is the same: the voter who goes to the polls with the 
most knowledge, the one who understands the workings of 
the political machine and is familiar with public affairs, is 
going to have a great deal more influence with govern¬ 
ment than the ignorant voter can have. It is true the 
well-informed citizen casts into the ballot box but a 
single vote, but his example and his influence in the com¬ 
munity cause others to vote the way he does. Therefore 


MAJORITY RULE 


65 


his power with the government is not measured by one 
vote but by all the votes he wins over to his side. 

Democracy a Government of Justice.—Another great 
fact of democracy which you will do well to think about 
at this point is this: the majority must deal fairly with 
the minority. What is all government for? For what 
purpose are these armies and navies and courts and offi¬ 
cers and laws? Their purpose is to maintain justice 
among men, to prevent men from suffering any kind of 
wrong. Now if the majority does not deal fairly with 
the minority it does the very thing that it is the purpose 
of government to prevent: it inflicts injustice. And the 
injustice of a majority is the worst kind of injustice. 
When a big strong boy wantonly and cruelly pummels a 
little boy we call the big boy a bully; so if a majority, a 
big body of men, should maltreat a minority, a small 
body of men, by taking away their property unjustly, 
or throwing them into jail without cause, we might prop¬ 
erly call the majority a bully. A bully is a tyrant and 
a majority that does not deal fairly with a minority is 
both a bully and a tyrant. 

The tyranny of the majority is justly regarded as one 
of the greatest dangers of a democracy. It is dangerous 
because it is so powerful. In a monarchy the citizens can 
put an end to the tyranny of their king by killing him, 
but you cannot kill a majority. There is no way to re¬ 
sist successfully the brute force of a majority if it wants 
to be cruel or unjust. In a democracy tyranny can be 
avoided in only one way: the citizens must always vote 


66 


THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT 


for what they think is just and right, and in determining 
what is just and right they must keep the golden rule 
in mind. The majority would do well to keep these lines 
of Shakespeare ever before their eyes: 

Oh, it is excellent 

To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous 
To use it like a giant. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. How many votes were cast in the United States at the last presi¬ 
dential election? How many votes were cast for the successful candi¬ 
date? What per cent of the whole population voted for the successful 
candidate? 

2. Why should Civil Government be taught in the public schools? 

3. Define the following words: democracy, aristocracy, monarchy, 
despotism, oligarchy, anarchy. 

4. Give reasons why democracy is better than monarchy. 

5. What countries besides our own have popular governments? 


XITI. THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT: REPRE¬ 
SENTATION 


"A representative government, made responsible at short periods 
of election, produces the greatest sum of happiness to mankind.” 

—Thomas Jefferson. 

Pure and Representative Democracy.—In the last 
lesson you learned that our government is a democracy, 
one that receives its power from the people. Now there 
are two kinds of democracies, the pure democracy and 
the representative democracy. The pure democracy is 
one in which the voters meet in a body and not only 
choose officers of government but enact laws as well. 
In ancient Greece the State was often a pure democracy. 
For example, when Attica wished to decide any important 
affair all her citizens, more than ten thousand in number, 
flocked to Athens and assembled in the Agora, or market 
place, to discuss the question and vote upon it. In this 
assembly there were all classes of society,—carpenters, 
weavers, shoemakers, poets, generals, philosophers. After 
the question had been fully discussed the vote was taken, 
and the will of the majority was regarded as the will of 
Attica. This was pure democracy. 

But you can see that a large city or a State cannot be 
a pure democracy, for the whole body of citizens is too 
large to meet at one place. How, then, can all the people 
of a State have a voice in the making of a law, or take part 
67 


68 


THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT 


in the management of their government? They cannot 
take part directly, but they may do it indirectly in the 
following way: 

A number of citizens may choose one of their number 
to act in their stead: the citizens of a town or of a county 
may choose one or two of its citizens to meet with other 
citizens chosen in the same way from other towns and 
counties. If there are fifty counties in a State, and the 
voters of each county, instead of going themselves, elect 
two of their number to go to the capital of the State for the 
purpose of making laws, the lawmaking body of the State 
will consist of one hundred voters. This small body will 
act in the name of several hundreds of thousands of people, 
and the laws it passes will be as binding as if they had been 
passed by all the people coming together in an immense 
throng. A man who acts in the place of and *with the 
authority of other men represents those men, and is called 
their representative; and the government that is conducted 
by a few people chosen to act in the name of all the peo¬ 
ple is a representative government, or a rejrresentative de¬ 
mocracy. 

In this country we have representative government. 
In the New England towns, it is true, the people still 
come out in town meeting and govern as a pure democ¬ 
racy, but in the other governments, in counties and cities 
and States and in our nation, the people rule indirectly 
through their chosen representatives. 

The Representative’s Term of Service.—For how long 
a period should a representative hold the power which 


REPRESENTATION 


69 


the voters give him? If you are a member of a club, your 
club doubtless elects officers every year. Why do you 
elect them so often? Why not elect them every five 
years, or every ten years, or for life? Because you want 
an opportunity to elect new officers should the interests 
of the club demand a change. The officers might neglect 
their duties or manage affairs badly, and if they held their 
places for long terms they might do a great deal of mis¬ 
chief before the club could get rid of them. In order to 
keep the reins in its hands the club elects its officers for 
short terms. 

The same rule holds in American politics. The voters 
keep the reins of government in their hands by electing 
their representatives for short terms only. It is rare 
that a representative’s term of office is more than four 
years. A great many representatives are elected for 
the term of two years, and some for one year only. 
This does not mean that representatives can serve for 
only short periods, for if their constituents want to 
retain them they can elect them again and again. As 
a matter of fact representatives by means of reelection 
sometimes hold their places for thirty or forty years. 

This practice of giving our representatives only short 
terms of office causes election day to come around very 
often. In a great many States there is at least one elec¬ 
tion every year, and in a few States election day comes 
twice a year. You will hear people complain of this 
frequency of election, but as a matter of fact frequent 
elections are good both for the representative and for 


70 


THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT 


the voter. They are good for the representative because 
they tend to hold him to his duty; they are good for the 
voter because they keep his mind fixed upon the doings 
of his government and this helps to make him the wide¬ 
awake person a citizen of a democracy ought to be. 

How a Fair Representation is Secured.—How shall 
fair representation of the people be secured? If you were 
a member of an athletic association that comprised many 
schools and there was to be held an important meeting of 
the governing body, you would want your own school to 
have a just number of representatives at this meeting. 
But what would be a just and fair number? Would you 
want your school to be represented according to its rank 
in scholarship? According to the number of its pupils? 
According to the number of good athletes it has? Accord¬ 
ing to the amount of money it contributes to the asso¬ 
ciation? Such questions as these would have to be an¬ 
swered before you could put your association on a good 
working basis. So in conducting a representative gov¬ 
ernment there must be a plan for securing a fair rep¬ 
resentation of the people. 

For the carrying out of laws we usually elect only one 
person, a Mayor, a Governor, or a President, and as for 
the judges of the law, we elect only so many of these 
as are necessary to try promptly and carefully the cases 
that are brought up. Thus far there is no trouble in 
determining how many representatives to choose. But 
we must have representatives also for a lawmaking body. 
Our town or city must have a Council, our State a Legis- 


REPRESENTATION 


71 


lature, our nation a Congress. How is a fair representa¬ 
tion in these lawmaking bodies to be secured? 

It is secured by giving the people a representation ac¬ 
cording to their number: so many people, so many rep¬ 
resentatives. If our city has a population of 50,000 and 
we want a City Council of twenty-five members, we may 
divide the city into twenty-five districts (wards), draw¬ 
ing the boundary lines so that each ward shall have as 
nearly as possible 2,000 inhabitants and to each ward 
give one representative. In the State Legislatures, the 
counties are represented according to their population; 
as a rule a county of 40,000 inhabitants will have twice 
as many representatives as a county of 20,000. In the 
great House of Representatives at Washington the rule 
of representation according to population is carried out 
with the greatest exactness. A member of the House at 
present represents about 200,000 people. 

Why has the rule “so many people, so many repre¬ 
sentatives’ , been adopted? Because it is consistent with 
the spirit of true democracy. In America, government 
is for men as men, and not for this or that interest or 
class. And this is right. The principal thing in a country 
is not its wealth, or its extent of territory, or its mines, 
or its fields, or its factories, but its men. 

“What constitutes a state? 

Not high-rais’d battlement or labour’d mound, 

Thick wall or moated gate; 

Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned; 


72 


THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT 


Not bays and broad armed ports, 

Where laughing at the storm rich navies ride; 

Not starred and spangled courts, 

Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 
No. MEN, high-minded MEN, 

Men who their duties know, 

But know their rights and knowing dare maintain, 
Prevent the long-aimed blow 
And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain— 
These constitute a state” 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Define constituent. 

2. Name the republics (representative democracies) of the world. 

3. Elect one of your classmates to represent your class in a spelling 
contest. One to represent the class in a debate. 

4. Should the representative always vote to please his constituents? 
Suppose the voters change their opinions after an election, should the 
representative also change his opinions? Suppose the opinions of the 
representative should change after an election, should he resign his 
office or should he vote against the wishes of his constituents, or what 
should he do? Suppose the voters after an election should instruct 
their representative as to a course of action, should the representative 
obey the instruction? 

5. The Recall. In some cities and in some States, as in Oregon, 
Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, and Washington, the voters have 
the power to deprive a representative of his office before his term has 
expired if he does not discharge his duties in the way the voters think 
he ought to discharge them. This power is called the “ recall.” What 
do you think of the “recall” as a political contrivance? 


XIV. THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT: CHECKS 
AND BALANCES 


“A separation of departments, so far as practicable, and the preser¬ 
vation of clear lines of division between them, is the fundamental idea 
of all our constitutions, and doubtless the continuance of regulated 
liberty depends on maintaining these boundaries.”— Daniel Webster. 

Introduction.—You have learned that all the power 
of government comes from the people and that the people 
give their power to their chosen representatives. You 
ought next to learn how the mighty power of the Ameri¬ 
can government is regulated. In almost any ordinary 
machine there are devices for regulating and checking 
power. The steam engine has its governor, the car has 
its brakes, the clock its escapement, the watch its balance 
wheel, the elevator its safety appliance. Likewise in our 
political machinery, there is a really wonderful series of 
devices for regulating, balancing, and checking power, 
and you must understand the workings of these checks 
and balances. 

The Three Departments of Government.—Let us be¬ 
gin this great subject of checks and balances by observ¬ 
ing the manner in which the power of government is 
separated or broken up into parts. We do not elect one 
ruler and bestow upon him all the power we have to give. 
To do that might be to build a despotism over our heads, 
for the ruler who has the whole power of the government 

73 


74 


THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT 


in his hands could be a tyrant if he wanted to be. He 
could make a rule for the people to obey, could decide 
who obeyed it and who did not, and could punish the 
disobedient as he thought fit. In the exercise of his power 
he would have nothing to regulate him, nothing to check 
him. If he followed reason and justice all would be well, 
but he might follow passion or prejudice or caprice and 
then all would not be well. The American people take 
no chances in this matter. They refuse to give all their 
power to one man or to one body of men. Following the 
example of our English ancestors, we bestow power upon 
three different sets of officers, giving to each set authority 
of a particular kind. In this way we separate the power 
of government and cause it to flow in three streams. 

These three streams of power give us three depart¬ 
ments of government: the legislative, the executive, and 
the judicial departments. The legislative department (the 
Legislature) has the power to make the laws, the executive 
department (the President, or Governor, or Mayor) has the 
power to enforce the law or carry it into effect, and the 
judicial department (the courts) has the power to try 
offenders against the law and to settle disputes arising un¬ 
der it. 

You may liken these three departments to three great 
departments of your own being, your judgment, your 
will, and your conscience. Your judgment plans for you 
a course to follow; the legislature when making the law 
plans a course for the people to follow. Your will executes 
the plans mapped out by your judgment; the executive 


CHECKS AND BALANCES 


75 


department carries out the plans enacted by the legisla¬ 
ture. Your conscience prevents you from doing wrong, 
that is, from working injustice upon others; the courts see 
to it that there is no injustice between man and man. 
So the legislature is the judgment of the State, the execu¬ 
tive department is its will, and the courts are its conscience. 
In the legislative department we must look for Wisdom, 
in the executive department for Power, and in the judicial 
department for Justice. • The legislature, let us say, is 
a nation’s Head, the executive department is its Hand, 
and the courts are its Heart. 

The three departments are found in nearly all our 
political divisions, whether low or high, small or great. 
In most of our towns and cities we have councilmen or 
aldermen to make local laws (ordinances), a Mayor or 
chief burgess to carry out these laws, and magistrates 
or police justices to try the smaller cases. In each 
State there is the State Legislature, the State executive 
department, consisting of the Governor and other 
executive officers, and the State courts. For the entire 
country we have Congress (which is the legislature of 
the nation), the President and his cabinet, and a system 
of national courts, including the Supreme Court. So, 
in small things as well as great, government in America 
is conducted on the three-department plan. 

The Lower and the Upper House.—Besides the sepa¬ 
ration of power just pointed out, there is in the legislative 
department an important check upon the use of power. 
We do not as a rule give the lawmaking power outright 


76 


THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT 


to one body of men, but to two bodies, and we require 
that before a measure (a bill) becomes a law it shall pass 
in both bodies. Neither body can make a law without 
the consent of the other. 

The two divisions of the Legislature are generally spoken 
of as the lower and the upper house. The lower house is 
usually known as the House of Representatives. The 
upper house is always known as the Senate. The lower 
house usually has a membership three or four times as 
large as that of the Senate. This means that a Senator 
usually represents three or four times as many people as 
are represented by a member of the lower house, for in 
nearly all our legislatures representation in both branches 
follows pretty closely the rule, “so many people, so many 
representatives.” The Senate of the United States, how¬ 
ever, is an exception to this rule, as will be explained 
hereafter. 

Why is it necessary to have two houses to pass a law? 
Why cannot we elect a single body and give to it the 
whole lawmaking power? If there were but one house, 
a bad bill might be rushed through in a moment of excite¬ 
ment or passion and the law might do much mischief; 
but if a bill must pass through two houses before it be¬ 
comes a law there is a chance for the lawmakers of the 
second house to take a sober second thought and block 
the passage of the bill if it is bad. 

The Veto Power.—Another check to be noticed here 
is the veto power. In nearly all cases the executive can 
check the legislative power by vetoing its laws, that is, 


CHECKS AND BALANCES 


77 


by forbidding their passage. The Mayor of a city can 
generally veto an ordinance of the Council, the Governor 
of a State (in all States except North Carolina) can veto 
a law of the Legislature, the President of the United 
States can veto a law of Congress. But the veto power 
is not complete, absolute, and final. When one branch 
of the Legislature votes down a bill passed by the other 
branch, that is the end of the matter, for the bill is killed, 
but when the Governor or the President vetoes a bill the 
Legislature or the Congress can vote on it again and if 
it can be passed a second time by a two-thirds or three- 
fifths majority of both houses it becomes a law in spite 
of the veto. So the veto power is only partial and may 
be only a temporary check. 

The Independence of the Departments.—In the exer¬ 
cise of its own proper powers one department is entirely 
independent of the others. Each department is expected 
to attend to its own business in its own way and not to 
meddle with the affairs of another department. In the 
political scales the power of one department is supposed 
to balance precisely the power of another. The scales 
must not tip one way or the other. 

Who is to keep this system of checks and balances in 
good working order? When the beam tips, who is to 
restore the balance?' The people themselves. Only the 
voters have power enough to outweigh the power of a 
department. If a Mayor has seized powers that do not 
belong to him, the voters may refuse to reelect him; if a 
Legislature is lording it over a Governor, a vote of the 


78 


THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT 


people may keep the members of the Legislature at home 
and thus give back to the Governor his rightful power. 

As a voter you may be called upon to help in preserving 
a balance of power among the departments, and you 
ought to understand clearly that such a balance is a 
good thing and that encroachment is a bad thing. Why 
is it a bad thing? Why should you refuse to support a 
department that is grasping powers that do not belong 
to it? Washington has answered this question. “The 
spirit of encroachment,” he says, “tends to consolidate 
the power of all the departments in one and thus create, 
whatever the form of government, a real despotism.” 
When you hear men calling for power, power, more power, 
remember these words of Washington, and don’t give 
them the power unless it is precisely the kind they ought 
to have. Don’t give to the judge the kind of power a 
lawmaker ought to have; don’t give to the lawmaker 
the kind of power a judge ought to have; don’t give to 
an executive officer the kind of power the legislature 
ought to have. Keep all the parts of government well 
balanced and thus prevent the despotism that Washington 
feared. 


QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. What does the word veto mean? 

2. Do you think it would be wise to give the lawmaking power o! 
the school to pupils? The judicial power? The executive power? 

3. In some schools the pupils organize themselves into a little 
democracy or self-governing community. They elect from their num¬ 
ber a lawmaking body which makes the rules of the school, executive 
officers who carry the rules into effect, and a judicial body which de- 


CHECKS AND BALANCES 


70 


cides whether a pupil has violated a rule. Whom of your school would 
you choose for your lawmakers? Whom would you choose as your chief 
executive officer? Whom would you choose as your judges? What 
rules would you desire in respect to tardiness? Whispering? Cheat¬ 
ing? Truancy? Absence? Rudeness? (Pupils and teachers who are 
interested in the subject of self-government for schools should con¬ 
sult Wilcox and Gill’s “ Outline of American Government.”) 

4. Name two great lawmakers, two great judges, two great execu¬ 
tives. 


XV. THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT: LOCAL 
SELF-GOVERNMENT 


“It is to local self-government that we owe what we are and what 
we hope to be .”—Daniel Webster. 

Introduction.—You now have learned three of the 
great truths that lie at the foundation of American gov¬ 
ernment, namely: (1) that government is conducted ac¬ 
cording to the principle of majority rule; (2) that the 
people govern through their chosen representatives; 
(3) that the power of government is sharply separated 
and given to three great departments. A fourth great 
truth about our political system is this: in respect to 
local matters every community has large powers of local 
self-government. In this lesson let us learn about local 
self-government. 

The Three Grades of Government.—If you have paid 

any attention at all to public affairs you have already 
noticed several governments in operation around you. 
If you live in a southern State on a farm you know some¬ 
thing of a county government that transacts its business 
at the county seat, something of a State government that 
has its headquarters at your State capital, and something 
of the great National Government that has its seat at 
Washington. If you live on a farm in a northern State 
you are familiar also with a town or township govern- 
80 


LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT 


81 


ment. If you live in a village or in a city you are con¬ 
stantly brought face to face with the officers of a village 
or city government. 

At first sight, therefore, it appears that we have at 
least half a dozen different kinds of government, but 
let us see if we cannot group them so as to reduce the 
number of classes. It will be noticed that all the govern¬ 
ments below the State government attend to the affairs 
of a small area. The county is usually not so large but 
that one may drive from one end of it to the other in a 
day, a township occupies only a few square miles, and 
the area of the village or city is generally even smaller. 
Moreover, as we shall presently see, all these governments 
of lower grade stand in the same relation to the higher 
State government, and they all perform the same kind 
of public service. So we may consider all the political 
divisions below the State, that is to say, counties, towns, 
townships, villages, boroughs, cities, as having the same 
grade of government, and we may call this grade neighbor¬ 
hood or local government because its services are always 
confined to a neighborhood or locality. We have, there¬ 
fore, three grades of government—local government, State 
government, and National Government. 

The Relation of the Local Government to the State.— 
What is the relation of a local government to the gov¬ 
ernments of higher grade? How does your county or 
township or city stand in respect to the State and to the 
nation? The answer to this question is very simple: the 
local government receives all its powers from the State 
E, Civil Qpvt,—6 


82 


THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT 


and is in no way connected with the National Government. 
The authority which a locality exercises is given to it 
either by the State constitution (of which we shall learn 
later) or by a law of the State Legislature. The authority 
which a locality receives from the constitution cannot be 
taken from it without changing the constitution, but that 
which it receives from the Legislature can be changed as 
often as that body desires and in any way it desires. 

Local Self-Government.—Although the State has full 
power over a locality and can rule it almost precisely as 
it may wish to, yet as a matter of fact the locality in 
every State is in many things allowed to rule itself. In 
practice the State Legislature passes a law giving to the 
local government certain powers and provides for certain 
officers, and when it has done this it lets the locality alone. 
The county or township or the city is permitted to do its 
own work in its own way so long as it does nothing con¬ 
trary to the law which the Legislature gives it. But, 
mind you, that law gives the people very large powers 
of local self-government. The American people would not 
,be satisfied with any other arrangement. Our political 
system had its birth in the little local governments which 
the early settlers set up, and in the building up of States 
and of the nation the people have always reserved for 
themselves the right of attending to their own local busi¬ 
ness. Our affection for local self-government is so strong 
that neither a Legislature, nor a convention called to frame 
a constitution, would dare to take from a community the 
right to attend to its own affairs. 


LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT 


83 


The Services of Local Government.—The local gov¬ 
ernment attends to common, everyday affairs. Indeed, 
we might say it performs the drudgery of social service. 
The constables and policemen of the local government 
stand guard night and day, in sunshine and in storm, 
to preserve order and keep the peace. Highway officers 
and workmen of the local government repair the roads, 
pave the streets, dig the sewers, and build the bridges. 
In schools supported by the neighborhood, public teachers 
work laboriously and patiently for the education of youth. 
In its almshouses the local government feeds and clothes 
the poor of the neighborhood, thus recognizing the prin¬ 
ciple that charity should begin at home. Health officers 
of the local government prevent the spread of contagious 
diseases, cause people to be vaccinated, condemn bad 
plumbing, and care in many ways for the public health. 
To pay for these services the local government levies such 
taxes as are necessary, and these are collected by local 
officers. 

Any neighborhood government, whatever may be its 
name, can be expected to render such services as these 
just mentioned. It is always the business of the locality 
to preserve peace and good order within its boundaries,' 
to attend to its own roads and streets, to educate its own 
youth, to support its own poor, to care for its own health, 
to levy and collect its own taxes. If the locality, how¬ 
ever, is a large town or city its government must do all 
this and much more than this, for where people live close 
together government always has more things to do than 


THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT 


84 

it has where they live far apart. What the additional 
services of a city are, however, need not concern us at 
this point, for the subject will receive special attention 
hereafter. 

This general account of the nature of local government 
and of the kind of work it does prepares us to make a 
particular study of the several different types of local 
government. The local governments that should be 
studied are the County, the Township, the Town, the 
Village, and the City. In the next lesson the Coimty will 
receive attention, 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Describe a community in which all the local services mentioned 
in the lesson are performed badly. 

2. Describe a community in which all the local services mentioned 
in the lesson are performed well. 

3. Does the constitution of this State give the local government 
much power or little power? 

4. Suppose the people of a locality do not manage their affairs well, 
ought the State government to step in with its officers and govern the 
locality? Which is better in such a case, self-government or good 
government? 

5. Give reasons why you ought to take a part in the business of 
local government. 


XVI. THE COUNTY 


“The town and county have shaped the life of the States of the 
Union .”—Austin Scott. 

Introduction.—The local government that touches the 
lives of the greatest number of people is the county. 
Every State and Territory is divided into counties, and 
as a rule every town, township, village, and city is located 
in some county. 1 Almost everybody, therefore, lives in 
a county and is interested in county government. 

County Government Not Everywhere the Same.—The 
services rendered by the county government differ as 
we pass from State to State. In the southern States and 
in many of the western States the county—outside of 
towns and cities—performs most of the local services 
mentioned in the last lesson. In the Middle Atlantic 
States and in the States of the great Middle West there 
are within the county a number of smaller local gov¬ 
ernments known as townships (Lesson XVIII), which do 
a part of the work of local government, and leave a fair 
portion of that work for the county to do. In New Eng¬ 
land there are within the county a number of local gov¬ 
ernments known as towns (Lesson XVII), which perform 

1 The county in Louisiana is known as the parish. 

Baltimore, St. Louis, Washington, D. C., and many cities in Vir¬ 
ginia are not located in counties. The city of New York includes all 
the territory of five counties. 


85 


86 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


nearly all the services of local government and leave the 
county very little to do. 

Since the county in different parts of the country has 
different work to perform we must not expect counties 
everywhere to have the same officers, nor can we expect 
to find county officers of the same name everywhere 
performing precisely the same duties. Still, in many im- 



A County Courthouse and Jail 


portant matters county government is everywhere the 
same. 

The County Seat.—Every county has a county seat 
where the courts are held and where the business of the 
county is transacted. The county seat may very prop¬ 
erly be called the capital of the county. It is the political 
center of the county, very often the geographical center, 
and in many cases the commercial center. Here are 
located the courthouse, the jail, and other county build- 








THE COUNTY 


87 


ings. Sometimes a county has two county seats, but this 
occurs very seldom indeed. 

The County Commissioners or Supervisors. —Most of 
the public business of the county is done by a Board of 
County Commissioners 1 —called in some States Super¬ 
visors. 2 This board consists of three or more members 
who hold their office for a term that varies, in different 
States, from one to six years. In most of the States the 
County Commissioners (Supervisors), like most of the 
other county officers, are elected by the people. 

The power and duties of the County Commissioners vary 
as we pass from State to State, but as a rule the Commis¬ 
sioners do at least the following things: 

(1) They fix the rate of taxation for the county. 

(2) They appropriate money for the payment of the 
salaries of county officers and to meet the other expenses 
of county government. 

(3) They make contracts for repairing old roads and 
opening new ones, and for building and repairing bridges. 

(4) They make contracts for building and repairing 
public buildings, such as courthouses, jails, and alms¬ 
houses. 

(5) They appoint subordinate county officials. 

1 This board is called in some of the States the county court; in sev¬ 
eral States it is called the levy court because it is the body that levies 
(raises) the taxes. In Rhode Island there are no County Commissioners. 

2 In some States the supervisors of all the different townships 
of a county act as a board of County Commissioners or Supervisors. 
This is true of New York, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and of many 
counties of Illinois, 


88 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


(6) They represent the county in the courts when it is 
sued for damages. 

The Court Officials of the County.— The county is 

everywhere a district for the administration of justice, 
and at every county seat one or more judges sit for the 
trial of cases. These judges generally are not themselves 
county officers but are State officers; yet in conducting 
the business of the court in each county they receive the 
assistance of several county officers. The principal county 
officers who assist the judges in their duties are the fol¬ 
lowing: 

(1) The Sheriff has been called the “arm of the judge” 
because he carries out the orders of the judge. If the 
judge orders a man to be taken to prison, the sheriff takes 
him; if he orders property to be sold, the sheriff sells it; 
if he sentences a man to be hanged, in some states the 
sheriff hangs him. It is the duty also of the sheriff to pre¬ 
serve peace and order. If there is a riot, the sheriff quells 
it. When necessary, the sheriff may call to his aid dep¬ 
uties or helpers. In times of great danger or disturbance, 
the sheriff may call to his aid the posse comitatus, that is, 
every able-bodied man in the county. The sheriff usually 
lives at the county seat and has charge of the county jail 
and its prisoners. 

(2) The Prosecuting Attorney —called in some States the 
State’s Attorney, in others the District Attorney, in others 
the County Attorney, and in still others the Solicitor— 
appears in the county court at the trial of a criminal and 
presents the case against him. If the evidence goes to show 


THE COUNTY 


89 


that the accused is guilty it is the business of the prosecu¬ 
ting attorney to do all in his power to secure the conviction 
of the offender. A faithful prosecuting attorney is a terror 
to criminals. 

(3) The Coroner .—When a person is murdered or is 
found dead or dies mysteriously the coroner (usually a 
physician) takes charge of the body of the dead person 
and inquires into the cause of the death. If he thinks 
that there has been foul play, he will summon six or 
twelve men to act as a coroner's jury, and an examina¬ 
tion will be made. Witnesses will be summoned, and the 
jury, after hearing evidence, will state in writing what 
they think was the cause of the death. This examination is 
called the “ coroner's inquest." 

(4) The Clerk of the County Court .—Any court above a 
police court, or above that of a justice of the peace, is a 
“court of record"; that is, its proceedings are enrolled 
in permanent form. The county court is a court of record, 
and the man who keeps its records is called the Clerk of 
the Court. This officer is a kind of secretary to the judge. 
He writes out an account of trials and keeps a record of 
the judgments of the court. Besides this, in some States, 
he keeps a record of deeds and mortgages affecting any land 
in the county, issues marriage certificates, and records all 
births and deaths. This officer in some States is called the 
Prothonotary. 

Other County Officials. —The county officers thus far 
mentioned are found in almost every State. In addi¬ 
tion to these there are several other county officials 


90 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


that are found in many or most States. Among these 
are: 

(5) The County Treasurer , who receives and pays out 
the money raised by taxation. 

(6) The County Auditor, who examines the books of 
the treasurer and of the other officers and reports whether 
the public accounts are kept properly and honestly. 

(7) County Assessors, who estimate the value of the prop¬ 
erty of each taxpayer in the county; and County Tax Col¬ 
lectors, who collect the taxes and turn them over to the 
treasurer. 1 

(8) The Register or Recorder of Deeds. —In all the States, 
when real estate is sold or is in any manner transferred 
from one person to another, a public record of the trans¬ 
fer is necessary to protect the rights of the new claimant. 
In about half the States the keeping of this record is 
intrusted to a special county officer known as the Register, 
or Recorder of Deeds. 

(9) The Probate Court— In most of the States there are 
county officers known as Judges of the Probate Court. 2 
It is the business of these officers to examine the wills* 
of deceased persons and decide whether they have been 
made as wills by law ought to be made. When a person 
dies without having made a will and leaves no one to 

1 A detailed treatment of the usual methods of taxation is post¬ 
poned to Chapters XXXVII and XXXVIII. 

2 In Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland they are called Judges of 
the Orphans’ Court; in Georgia the probate judge has the title of Ordi¬ 
nary. In New York and New Jersey the probate judges are called Sur¬ 
rogates. 


THE COUNTY 


91 


take charge of his estate, the probate court will appoint 
an Administrator to take charge of it. When a child is 
left without father or mother, the probate court will 
appoint a guardian who will manage the estate until the 
child comes of age. In general, the business of the pro¬ 
bate court is to see that the property of the dead falls 
into rightful hands. 

(10) The Superintendent of Schools .—In nearly all the 
States there is a county officer whose duty is to look after 
the interests of the public schools of the coimty. This 
officer usually sets the examinations for teachers, visits 
the schools, makes out courses of study, holds teachers’ 
institutes, and improves the schools in every way he 
can. 

(11) The School Board .—In a few States a county 
School Board has the general management of the schools 
of the county. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Bound accurately the county in which you live. When was it 
organized? What is its area? Its population? Its county seat? 
How came it by its name? What are its largest villages? Is there a 
city situated in it? How many counties are there in this State? 

2. If in your State there are county officers not named in the lesson, 
name these officers and describe the duties of each. 

3. Explain the difference between the words “elected” and “ap¬ 
pointed.” 

4. What qualifications should a sheriff possess? A register of deeds? 
A State’s attorney? A county treasurer? A superintendent of schools? 
As far as you know, are the officers of your county chosen on account 
of their fitness for office? 

5. Are you proud of your county? If so, for what reasons? 


92 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


6. Draw a map of your county, locating its county seat, and its 
chief towns and villages. 

7. Make out a table showing the titles of your county officers, their 
names, the length of their terms of office and whether they are ap¬ 
pointed or elected. 


Title 


Sheriff 


Name 


Length of term 


J. G. Smith 


2 


years 


Appointed 
or elected 

elected 


Salary 


$1500 











XVII. TOWN GOVERNMENT 


“The town governments of New England proved themselves the 
wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise 
of self-government and for its preservation .”—Thomas Jefferson . 

Early Town Government in New England.—In New 

England, after you pass from the governments of the 
home and of the school, the government that you meet 
first, if you do not live in a city or village, is that of the 
town. 

A town, or tun (toon), in the earliest times was a cluster 
of farmers’ dwellings, barns, and cattle sheds, such as 
may be seen to-day in many parts of Germany. Around 
the tun was either a wall of earth or a dense hedge, and 
outside, encircling the mound or hedge, was a ditch. The 
tun was thus fortified against its foes. In the center of 
the inclosure, usually under a large tree, was held the 
tun moot, or meeting of all the freemen of the tun. At 
this moot newcomers were admitted to dwell within the 
tun, lands were granted to freemen, “ strife of farmer and 
farmer was settled,” laws for the government of the tun 
were passed, and officers to execute those laws were elected. 
Two thousand years ago our forefathers governed them¬ 
selves in the tun moot in the wilds of Germany; when they 
settled in England fifteen hundred years ago they carried 
the tun moot with them; and when, nearly three hundred 
years ago, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, they at once 
93 


94 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


came together in tun moot, or town meeting, for the pur¬ 
pose of transacting public affairs. 

The Englishmen who first settled in New England were 
a very religious people. One of the first things they did 
in a new settlement was to build a church in some place 
convenient for all to attend. This church was called a 



A Town Meeting in Early New England 


meetinghouse, and this was a good name for it, for it was 
a common meeting place for all in the settlement. The 
congregation that met in it on the Sabbath as worshipers 
would meet in it on a week day as citizens and transact 
public affairs. Thus local government in New England 
centered around a church. A congregation of churchgoers 
was organized as a government, and this government was 
called a town. When a town became so large in extent 




















TOWN GOVERNMENT 


95 


that it was inconvenient for all to attend one church, a new 
church was built and a new town was organized. You 
rarely find a town in New England so large that a person 
cannot with convenience attend a church situated in its 
center. Every male citizen above twenty-one years of age 
who attended the church—and everybody was required 
to go to church—had the right to go to the meeting¬ 
house and take part in the town meetings. Voters are 
no longer required to attend church, and they include 
women as well as men; but in other respects the town 
governments of New England to-day are almost exactly 
like those of the early years of our history. 

The Town Meeting.—The most important feature of 
the town government is the town meeting . Once a year 
all the qualified voters of the town hold a meeting to 
discuss measures relating to town affairs, and to take 
action thereon. When the people have assembled in the 
town hall, the town clerk calls them to order, and states 
the purposes for which the meeting was called. A mod¬ 
erator is then chosen to preside over the meeting, and 
business proceeds according to parliamentary rules. In a 
town meeting we see pure democracy at work. Instead 
of sending men to conduct affairs for them, as in a repre¬ 
sentative government, the people are there in person. 
Young and old, rich and poor, take part in the proceed¬ 
ings, and any citizen present may exert the full force 
of his character and influence. Every measure that is 
brought up is freely discussed and criticised. Those in 
favor of the measure state their argument for it; those 


96 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


opposed to it state their objections. When the discussion 
is at an end a vote is taken, and whatever the result may 
be, all present feel that the will of the people has been 
expressed. All matters relating to the public affairs of 
the town are settled. The most important things done 
are these: 

(1) The rate of taxation is fixed. Money is appropri¬ 
ated for the schools, for the care of the roads, for the 
support of the poor, for the salaries of officers, and for 
other necessary expenses. 

(2) By-laws are passed for the regulation of local mat¬ 
ters. The word by originally meant town; hence a by-law 
is a town law. A law passed in town meeting regulating 
the speed of automobiles is an example of a by-law. 

(3) Town officers are elected. 

Town Officers.—The principal town officers are as fol¬ 
lows: 

(1) The Selectmen .—The general management of town 
affairs during the year is placed in the hands of three, or 
five, or seven, or nine citizens, called Selectmen. These 
officers carry into effect the measures passed at the town 
meeting. They supervise the laying out of roads; they 
grant licenses; they care for the poor; they take measures 
to abate nuisances, check the advance of diseases, and 
otherwise preserve the health of the town; they listen to 
complaints against the management of town affairs; they 
represent the town in court when it is sued; they make 
out the warrant when a special town meeting is to be 
called. 


TOWN GOVERNMENT 


97 


(2) The Town Clerk calls the town meeting to order 
and keeps a record of the proceedings. In addition to 
this he keeps a record of the births, marriages, and deaths 
in the town, and grants certificates to those wishing to 
marry. In fact, most matters of town record are in his 
keeping. 

(3) Assessors estimate the value of property liable to 
taxation. 

(4) Tax Collectors collect the tax. 

(5) The Town Treasurer receives and pays out the money 
which the town raises by taxation. 

(6) The Overseers of the Poor have charge of the town 
almshouse, and they give relief to the deserving poor. 

(7) The Constables are peace officers, and every town 
has one or more of them. They arrest for crime, and 
assist the selectmen in executing the law. 

(8) The Surveyors of Highways inspect roads and bridges, 
and are responsible for keeping them in repair. 

(9) Fence Viewers settle disputes that may arise be¬ 
tween neighbors about partition fences or walls. 

(10) Field Drivers. —When cows, or horses, or other 
animals are found wandering about the town the field 
driver puts them into a pound, and keeps them until their 
rightful owner is found. 

This list of officers is not complete, yet it is long enough 
to show that a great many people take part in the govern¬ 
ment of a town. It is quite possible that there are towns 
in which there is hardly one intelligent citizen who does 
not sometime in his life hold public office. This general 


98 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


participation in the business of government does much 
to make the people of New England a most wide-awake 
and progressive body of citizens. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

(For Pupils in Towns.) 

1. What kind of men make good selectmen? What should be the 
qualifications of a good town clerk? 

2. What are the boundaries of the town in which you live? When 
was your town organized? Is there a church near its center? 

3. Make out a list of the names of all who now hold town offices. 

4. Should boys and girls be allowed to take part in town meetings? 
Are they represented there? 

5. In what things should a town try to excel? In what does your 
town excel? 

6. How much money is raised by taxation in your town? What is 
the tax rate? Is this higher or lower than the rate in neighboring 
towns? 


XVIII. THE TOWNSHIP 


“The western method of local government [the county-township 
system] for simplicity, symmetry, flexibility, and administrative effi¬ 
ciency is superior to any other system which the Teuton mind has yet 
produced,”— G. E, Howard . 

The Nature of Township Government.—In the Mid¬ 
dle Atlantic States and in those western States that have 
been settled largely by emigrants from the Middle States, 
such as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, the government that comes 
closest to the door of the citizen is that of the township. 
A township is a small portion of a county in which the 
people exercise some of those powers of government which 
are exercised by the town of New England and by the 
county in the southern States. Township government, 
therefore, lies halfway between town government and 
county government. In New England the people of a 
town (by which we mean the people of a small neighbor¬ 
hood) have nearly all the powers of local government 
in their hands, and very little is left for the county to do. 
In a southern county the people of a small community 
exercise hardly any of the powers of government; every¬ 
thing is done by the county. Now in a township a few 
of the powers of local government are taken from the 
county and given to the people of a small neighborhood. 
The things done by the township government are usually 
three: it supports public schools, it cares for the roads, 
99 


100 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


and it helps the poor. It also, in many States, levies and 
collects taxes with which to pay for these things. 

Township Meetings and Township Elections.—In New 
York, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minne¬ 
sota, Nebraska, and the Dakotas the township resembles 
somewhat the New England town. In these States the 
voters come together once a year—usually in the spring— 
in township meeting and vote on township matters. At 
these meetings little is done except to elect the township 
officers. In some of the above-named States, however, 
after the officers have been elected the voters fix the tax 
rate and do some other things that in New England are 
done at the town meeting. In other words, in the above- 
named States the township resembles a pure democracy. 

In the other States in which there are township gov¬ 
ernments, that is to say, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, 
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, there are no 
township meetings but only township elections. In these 
States the township is a representative government: the 
voters simply elect the officers and these govern the town¬ 
ship. 

Officers of the Township.—Township officers are not 
precisely the same in any two States, yet in most of the 
States where the township appears there is a set of officers 
whose titles and duties are somewhat as follows: 

(1) The Supervisor or Supervisors (sometimes called 
Trustees ) take care of the roads and bridges, erect and keep 
in repair guideposts and watering troughs, and plant shade 
trees along the roadside. They may build and keep in re- 


THE TOWNSHIP 


101 


pair a townhouse, in which elections may be held and officers 
of the town may transact the public business. 

(2) The School Directors have control of the public 
schools within the township. Their powers and duties 
have been stated in a previous lesson (p. 25). In some 
States the directors of all the townships in a county meet 
every second or third year and elect a Superintendent 
of Schools for the county. 

(3) The Township Clerk is a secretary for the super¬ 
visors or trustees. He keeps the records and accounts 
of the township. 

(4) The Assessors. —The chief duty of the township as¬ 
sessors is like that of town or county assessors. Sometimes 
the assessors act also as registrars of voters (p. 49). Some¬ 
times they keep a record of all births and deaths for the 
township. 

(5) The Tax Collector collects the taxes in the township. 

(6) The Auditors examine the accounts of other officers 
of the township to see that all money has been expended 
properly and honestly. 

(7) The Justice of the Peace 1 holds court on a small 
scale; he acts as a peacemaker between his neighbors 
in their petty disputes; he administers oaths; he per¬ 
forms the marriage ceremony. 

(8) The Constable acts as the peace officer of the town¬ 
ship, and is the “arm of the justice of the peace/’ much as 
the sheriff is the “arm of the judge” (p. 88). 

(9) The Overseers of the Poor attend to the needs of the 

1 More is said about the Justice of the Peace on pages 144, 145. 


102 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


poor. When there is no poorhouse in the county, the 
township supports the poor by sending them provisions 
to their homes or paying some one to provide for them. 
In some States overseers may lay a tax for the support 
of the poor of the township. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

(For Pupils in Townships.) 

1. How many townships in the county in which you live? Name 
them. 

2. Bound the township in which you live. What is its population? 
Draw a map of it, locating the townhouse. Locate any villages that 
it may contain. 

3. What is the rate of taxation in your township? How does this 
compare with the rate of adjoining townships? 

4. Are the officers of your township elected by ballot, or by the 
people assembled in town meeting? 

5. Do the supervisors (or trustees) of your township serve as mem¬ 
bers of a county board of supervisors? 

6. Make out a table showing the titles of your township officers, 
their names, the length of their terms of office, whether they are ap¬ 
pointed or elected, and the salary or compensation. 


Title 


Name 


Length of term 


Appointed 
or elected 


Salary or 
compensation 











XIX. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 


“ I biess God for cities. Cities have been as lamps of life along the 
pathway of humanity and religion. Within them science has given 
birth to her noblest discoveries. Behind their walls freedom has 
fought her noblest battles.”— Colton. 

Why Municipal Government is Necessary.—The local 

governments thus far studied, the County, the Town, the 
Township, are best fitted to perform the local services of 
farming districts and thinly settled communities. These 
may, therefore, be called the rural governments . 1 For 
thickly settled communities, for villages , 2 boroughs, and 
cities, a special kind of government, known as munici¬ 
pal government, is necessary. Let us learn why it is nec¬ 
essary for a densely populated community to have a 
special kind of government. 

There is an old saying that “Rome was not built in a 
day.” This is true of all cities. The miles of streets and 
the grand buildings you see around you in a city were not 
built in a day. A city begins with one building, perhaps 
a flourmill, or a sawmill, or a farmhouse, or a rude shed 
for cattle. Let us try to follow in our imagination the 

1 It is only partly true to speak of the New England town as a 
rural government, for very often the towns of New England are very 
thickly settled and sometimes are cities in almost everything except 
in name. 

2 What is called a village in some States is in other States called a 
town, but the word town here does not mean the town discussed 
in Lesson XVII. 


103 


104 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


growth of a city. Let us suppose the first building is a 
sawmill built in a forest of fine timber. 

Soon after the mill is built its manager builds a home 
for himself and family. In a short time rows of houses 
are built as dwellings for the men who work in the mill 
and for those who cut down the trees. These rows of 
houses are the beginnings of streets. The families who 
dwell in these houses must be supplied with groceries and 
other necessaries; hence it is not long before a merchant 
comes and erects a building for a store. The horses that 
haul the logs must be shod and the wagons repaired; 
hence a blacksmith shop and a wheelwright shop must be 
built. A railroad is built near the settlement, and this 
brings a station and a station master. 

The place must now have a name. A natural name for 
it would be Millville. Let us call it that. Millville is 
prosperous, and many who wish to join in its prosperity 
are attracted to it. The doctor and the druggist, the 
shoemaker and the carpenter, with their families, come 
to try their fortune. Soon a schoolhouse is built, and 
a church and a house for the preacher. Another mill is 
built. This means more workmen and more merchants. 
Now comes the tailor, the seamstress, the music teacher, 
the barber, and baker, and many others. 

Millville has a thousand inhabitants, but it has no 
separate government. It is governed precisely as the 
more thinly settled region around it is governed. It pays 
a large share of the taxes of the county in which it is 
situated, yet it gets but little return for the money. In 


MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 


105 


the spending of the taxes but little attention is given to 
its needs. It needs street lamps, sidewalks, sewers, water¬ 
works, policemen, firemen. It also needs certain powers 
of government that are necessary wherever a large num¬ 
ber of people live together. As it is, in Millville each 
person acts in reference to his neighbor’s comfort about 
as he pleases. He paves the sidewalk in front of his 
house, or does not pave it, as best suits him; he helps to 
buy oil for the street lamps, or he refuses; if he sees fit, 
he may throw garbage into the street, and commit other 
offenses against the health of the town: there are no officers 
and no laws to hinder him. When there is a fight, there 
are no officers to arrest the offenders. 

Village and Borough Government. —In order to change 
this state of things and make Millville a safer, cleaner, and 
more beautiful place in which to live, its inhabitants get 
for it a special government. The people of the settlement 
organize as a village, or borough, or town . They are per¬ 
mitted to do this by a State law which provides for the 
government of villages or towns. They apply to the 
judge of some court or to some other officer and get a 
charter for a municipal government. In this charter the 
village is given a legal name and its boundaries are care¬ 
fully stated. The charter, or the State law, also states 
what officers the village is to have and what pow r ers the 
officers are to exercise. What these officers are called 
and what are their powers can be learned only from the 
village charter or the law itself. If you live in a chartered 
village by all means get a copy of your village charter 


106 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


and study it. Doubtless the charter provides for a village 
president, or mayor, or chief burgess, and for a body of 
trustees or commissioners or councilmen or burgesses. In 
addition the village may have a clerk, a treasurer, a tax col¬ 
lector, a constable, a justice of the peace, and a street com¬ 
missioner. 

Under their charter the citizens of Millville begin the 
business of governing a village. A police officer is em¬ 
ployed, waterworks are built, a fire engine is bought, 
sewers are laid, streets are paved and lighted and kept 
clean, better schoolhouses and better schools are pro¬ 
vided. To pay for all these things village or borough taxes 
are levied upon the property holders. 

We will suppose that under its new government Mill¬ 
ville is stirred with new life. More mills are built; large 
factories employing hundreds of people are set in opera¬ 
tion. The population rapidly and steadily increases. 
In the course of time, instead of having a thousand in¬ 
habitants, it has come to have many thousands. It is 
now found that the village form of government does not 
suit so large a place. The officers provided by the vil¬ 
lage charter are too few in number and the powers are 
too few and too small. Millville has become a city and it 
must have a government suitable to a city. 

The City Charter.—When the village becomes a city 
it still has municipal government and still does business 
under a charter. 

City charters are usually granted by the State Legisla¬ 
ture. In a few States, however, the people of a city have a 


MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 


107 


voice in the making of their charter. They draw up a 
charter suitable to their needs and present it to the 
Legislature or to some State officer for approval. 

The city charter provides for a great many more officers 
than a village charter and grants a great many more powers. 
The charter of a large city is sometimes a volume of several 
hundred pages. The names and titles of the officers of a 
large city would alone fill many pages of this book. Because 
of its size, then, it would be impossible here to describe fully 
the charter of a large city. 

There is another reason why a description of a city 
charter might not be satisfactory: the Legislature is 
constantly changing the charters of cities. So if I should 
take the charter of one of the cities of your State and 
describe the government of that city, it might happen 
that before my description found its way into print the 
Legislature would change the charter, and my description 
would be no description at all. If you live in a city and 
want a full and true description of your city government 
you must get it from the last charter granted to your city. 

Still, in spite of the different ways in which legislatures 
treat cities in the different States, and in spite of the 
constant changes that are being made in charters, mu¬ 
nicipal government all over the country is very much 
the same. The city everywhere has nearly the same kind 
of work to do, and to do this work properly there must 
be officers of a certain kind and these officers must have 
powers of a certain kind: What these officers and powers 
are will be the subject of the next lesson. 


108 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

(For Pupils in Villages, Boroughs, and Towns.) 

1. Obtain a copy of your village (or borough) charter, and examine 
it for answers to the following questions: 

(а) When was the charter granted? 

(б) By what authority was it granted? 

(c) What is the title of the executive officer of the village? 

(d) What is the governing body called? What are the powers of 

this body? How often does it meet? 

(e) Are the officers of the village elected or appointed? 

(/) What powers of taxation does the charter grant? Could the 
people of the village be taxed to build a bridge costing $,50,000? 
One costing $5,000? 

( g ) Who are entitled to vote at village elections? 

( h ) What are the boundaries of the village? 

2. What improvements are needed in your village? Can they be 
secured under the terms of the charter? 

3. Have you seen villages much more attractive than the one in 
which you live? What makes a village attractive? 

4. Are the officers of your village slow and old-fashioned, or pro¬ 
gressive and modem, in their ideas? 

5. Prepare a table for village officers similar to that which was 
prepared for county officers. 


XX. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT (Continued) 


“The modern city has come to be a huge corporation for carrying 
on a huge business with many branches .”—John Fiske. 

The Three Great Departments of City Government.— 

[n most cities we see very clearly the separation of power 
that gives us the three departments of government. In 
cities not governed by the commission system 1 the munic¬ 
ipal charter almost always provides for a law-making 
department, an executive department, and a judicial de¬ 
partment. But all judicial officers are really State officers, 
for they act in the name of the State even though they are 
elected for a city and by the voters of a city. The judicial 
department of a city consists simply of some State courts 
holding their sessions within the borders of the city. So 
it will not be necessary here to study the workings of the 
judicial department of city government, for that subject 
will be treated later when we come to study the workings 
of the judicial department of the State government (Lesson 
XXVI). Here we need to study only the legislative and 
executive departments of city government. 

The City Council. —The legislative department of a 
city is usually called the City Council. It generally con¬ 
sists of one branch, but in a few cities it has two branches. 
If the city is divided into wards, the voters of each ward 

^lie commission system is explained on pages 113-114. 

109 


110 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


elect one or more council men to represent them in the 
City Council. If there are twenty wards in the city, the 
Council will consist of twenty, or forty, or sixty members, 
according as there are one, two, or three members irom 



each ward. These councilmen meet in the City Hall , and 
make laws for the government of the city. The laws that 
a City Council makes are called ordinances . An ordinance, 
then, is a city law’. These ordinances of the Council relate 
to almost everything that concerns life in a city. There 





MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 


111 


is not room here to speak of all the things done by a City 
Council; a few of the things done by it, however, may be 
mentioned. 

When you are bom, the City Council requires that your 
name be registered in the book of births; when you are 
old enough to go to school, it provides for you schools and 
teachers and, sometimes, books; if your parents are too 
poor to support you, it will help you with food and cloth¬ 
ing; when you go out from your home, you walk upon 
streets paved and cleaned and lighted by the Council; if 
you should be attacked, its policemen will arrest your 
assailant; if you wish to engage in some business, it will 
probably demand of you a license; if you wish to build a 
home, you must first get from it permission to build; if your 
house takes fire, its firemen come rushing to put the fire out. 
The Council provides for the removal of garbage from your 
yard; it employs men to inspect the quality of your food 
and drink; it provides parks and open squares where you 
may get a breath of fresh air and a glimpse of nature; it 
causes to be brought into your house a supply of fresh 
water, and it provides sewers to carry waste water away 
from your house; if in your old age you shall be infirm 
and poor, the Council will care for you in its asylums; at 
last, when you shall die, it will grant a permit for your 
burial, and the fact of your death will have to be registered 
in its book of deaths. 

Thus from birth to death the acts of the City Council 
affect the lives of the people in the city. How important, 
then, it is that that body should be composed of honest 


112 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


and intelligent citizens! How tireless should be the efforts 
of voters to secure the election of such citizens! Remem¬ 
ber this: If you succeed in getting honorable, wide-awake 
citizens in your City Council, you will have a well- 
governed city. As far as you know, have you such citizens 
now in your City Council? 

The Mayor; Municipal Executive Department.—At 

the head of the municipal executive department stands 
the Mayor. This officer is nearly always elected directly 
by the people, although in a very few cases he is chosen 
by the City Council. His term of office varies from one 
to four years. The chief duty of the Mayor is to carry 
into effect the ordinances of the Council. In most cities 
the Mayor can veto an ordinance of the Council. When 
an ordinance is vetoed it is generally sent back to the 
Council, where it is voted upon again and if it is passed 
again by a two-thirds (or three-fifths) vote, it is a lawful 
ordinance, notwithstanding the Mayor’s objection. 

The work a city government has to do is very great, and 
it takes a small army of men and women to perform it. 
The municipal business is done by departments. At the 
head of each department there is an executive officer or a 
board. The heads of these departments (or boards) are 
usually either appointed by the Mayor or elected by the 
people. When they are appointed by the Mayor they 
sometimes must be approved by the City Council. 

The municipal executive departments are few or many 
according as the city is small or large, and according as 
the municipal work is light or heavy. In many good-sized 


MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 


113 


wide-awake cities you will find the following departments, 
officers, and boards: 

(1) A Department of Finance with a comptroller, or 
auditor, and assessors and collectors of taxes. 

(2) A Department of Law with a city solicitor, or corpo¬ 
ration counsel, who acts as the city’s lawyer. 

(3) A Department of Public Safety with fire commis¬ 
sioners, health commissioners, inspectors of buildings, in¬ 
spectors of boilers, inspectors of plumbing. 

(4) A Department of Parks and Squares with a board 
of park commissioners. 

(5) A Department of Education with a board of school 
commissioners. 

(6) A Department of Charities with a board of overseers 
of the poor. 

(7) A Department of Police with a board of police com¬ 
missioners. 

(8) A Department of Highways with a street commis¬ 
sioner, a city engineer, and a superintendent of lamps and 
lighting. 

Many cities do not have all the above departments 
and officers, but many large cities have them all and many 
more besides. Serving in these departments are assistants 
and employees, who in many cities are numbered by 
thousands and in a few by tens of thousands. 

The Commission System of Municipal Govern¬ 
ment.— In a large number of cities, in various states, 
the commission plan of municipal government has been 
adopted. Under this plan the city is governed by a 
F. Civil Govt,—8 


1X4 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


commission consisting of a Mayor and a small body of 
Commissioners (or Councilmen)—usually four in number. 
The Commissioners are elected by the whole body of voters 
without regard to wards or precincts, and are supposed to 
be elected without regard to political party. The Mayor 
and the Commissioners act together in governing the city. 
The commission both makes the laws by which the city 
is governed and carries those laws into effect. The Mayor 
is a member of the commission. He is its chairman, but 
he does not have the veto power. The business of the 
city is divided into as many departments as the com¬ 
mission has members, and each member of the commis¬ 
sion is placed in charge of a particular department and is 
held responsible for the management of that department. 

The City Manager Plan. —A number of cities in Ohio 
and in several other States are governed under the city 
manager plan. Where this plan has been adopted the 
entire administration of the affairs of a city is placed 
in the hands of a single officer known as the city man¬ 
ager, appointed by the commission (or council). The 
manager usually appoints all the city officers and em¬ 
ployees, the work of the commission (or council) being- 
confined to the passing of ordinances. 

Services of City Government. —In the paragraph on 
the City Council mention was made of many of the usual 
and more important services of city government. But 
should the city attempt to do more than it usually does ? 
It supplies the people with water; should it supply them 
with gas also ? Should it own and operate the electric cars? 


MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 


115 


It provides children with an education; should it provide 
them with a midday lunch also ? Should it furnish the 
music for the parks ? Should it own and operate the tele¬ 
phone ? Should it lay pipes and supply heat to families ? 
These are a few of the questions you will be called upon to 
answer when you become voters. You may not be able 
to answer them intelligently now; but if you will begin 
to study them now, when the time comes for you to 
vote and act, you will not vote and act like blind men. 
Surely if you live in a city the subject of municipal 
government deserves all the attention you can give it. 

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

(For Pupils who live in Cities.) 

1. In what county is the city in which you live situated? When was 
it organized? What are its boundaries? WTiat is its population? 
What are its industries? Can a city be situated in a town? 

2. How many wards in your city? In which ward do you live? 
Bound the ward in which you live. How many councilmen or aider- 
men does each ward in your city send to the City Council? What are 
the qualifications of a good councilman? Name the councilmen who 
represent your ward. 

3. Let a pupil obtain a copy of the report of the police department 
and describe its work. The report will show how many policemen are 
employed, what are their salaries, the number of arrests made, the 
causes for which the arrests were made, and other interesting facts. 
Reports of other departments may be similarly studied. 

4. How does the rate of taxation in your city compare with that of 
other cities of equal size? 

5. What is the amount of the debt of your city? 

6. Does your city own its gas and electric light plants? 

7. Has your city the reputation of being well governed? 

8. What are the qualifications of a good Mayor? 

9. How may young people help the cause of good city government? 


XXI. THE STATE 


“ States make up the mass, the body, the organic stuff of the govern¬ 
ment of the country. To them is intrusted our daily welfare.” 

—Woodrow Wilson. 

The Thirteen Colonies.—While studying the govern¬ 
ment of the city and town and county mention was made 
now and then of a larger government that is above the 
local governments and that holds them together and gives 
them their power. This larger government is the State, 
and it is the State that we are now going to study. We may 
best begin the study of the State by glancing at the history 
of State government in the United States. 

At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, three mil¬ 
lion English-speaking people lived along the coast of the 
Atlantic in thirteen distinct and separate colonies,— 
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Con¬ 
necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
Georgia. These colonies were all dependent upon the 
[English government; their inhabitants were subjects of 
the English king. But England was three thousand miles 
away, and it took, in those times, many weeks for a vessel 
to cross the Atlantic. As a result of this wide separation, 
England could not govern an American colony in the 
same way that she governed one of her counties at home. 
A colony in many things was allowed to govern itself. It 
116 


THE STATE 


117 


elected its own lawmakers, it appointed its own judges. 
Rhode Island and Connecticut even elected their own Gov¬ 
ernors also, and thus exercised the three powers of govern¬ 
ment,—the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. 
Aside from the tie that bound it to England, a colony had 
no other ties. Each colony was independent of all the other 
colonies. Pennsylvania had no more to do with its neigh¬ 
bor Maryland in the way of government than it had with 
Prussia. 

The Thirteen Original States.—By the Revolution each 
colony made itself in many respects a free and independent 
nation,—a State. Instead of thirteen English colonies, 
there were thirteen American States. As quickly as possi¬ 
ble, the people of each colony took up the difficult task 
of self-government. The first thing to be done was to 
change the colonial government into a State government. 
This was done by representatives of the people of a State 
agreeing on a plan as to just how the State was to be 
governed. This plan was put in writing and was called 
the constitution of the State. Each colony made for 
itself a constitution that suited best its own wishes and 
its own needs. The constitution of Virginia differed from 
that of Massachusetts, because the needs of Virginia were 
different from those of Massachusetts. 

You must not suppose that the new State government 
that was formed differed very much from the old colonial 
government. The people of a colony, after many years of 
hard experience, had built up the kind of government they 
liked best, and they had become used to obeying certain 


118 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


laws and observing certain customs. Now it is not pos- 
sible—and you should think of this when you hear new 
schemes of government proposed—it is not possible for 
a people suddenly to make a complete change in their 
laws, customs, and habits. So the new State governments 
were necessarily very much like the old colonial govern¬ 
ments. The colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island 
-did not form new governments at all, but took the old 
charters granted to them by England as their new con¬ 
stitutions. 

The Admitted States. —In 1788-1790 the thirteen 
original States formed a Union under the Constitution of 
the United States. It was not long before other commu¬ 
nities outside of the present boundaries of the original States 
wished to join the Union. Each was allowed to do this as 
soon as it had grown large enough in population and after 
it had adopted for itself a constitution that was acceptable 
to Congress. Vermont was the first new State thus ad¬ 
mitted to the Union. This was in 1791. The next year 
Kentucky was admitted; and so on from time to time 
until, in 1912 (when New Mexico and Arizona received ad¬ 
mission), thirty-five States had been admitted, making 
forty-eight in all. 

The Outlines of a State Government. —From their 
history you would expect the governments of the several 
States to differ from one another and you would expect 
them also to resemble one another. Most of the people 
of the colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia were 
Englishmen in blood and speech and they all had English 


THE STATE 


lly 

notions of liberty and government and law. When the 
United States became a nation what had been English 
before became American, and as new States came into 
the Union they came in with American notions of liberty, 
government, and law. 1 So it is quite natural that the 
governments of the forty-eight States should be alike in 
many important respects. Each State 

(1) Has a popular government. 

(2) Has a written constitution. 

(3) Has the three great departments of government. 

(4) Supports a system of public schools. 

(5) Provides for a system of local self-government. 

(6) Makes most of the laws that regulate the citizen 
in his daily conduct and in his daily pursuits. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Name the States of the Union. 

2. Bound the -State in which you live. Is it one of the original 
States? If it is not, when was it admitted into the Union? 

3. What is the origin of the name of your State? What is its nick¬ 
name? What is the coat-of-arms of your State? 

4. How many States have a greater population than your State? 
What is the area of your State? How many States have a greater 
area? How many States as large as the smallest State in the Union 
could be made out of the largest State in the Union? 

5. Write a short composition on “Our State,” telling about the 
history of your State, its size, its population, its industries, its re¬ 
sources, its schools, its cities, its great men, and giving reasons why 
you are proud of it. 

1 Louisiana when admitted (in 1812) had the French system of law. 


XXII. THE STATE CONSTITUTION 


“ The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make 
and alter their constitution of government .”—George Washington. 

Meaning of the Word “ Constitution.”—You have 

met the word Constitution several times already, and, 
since you will meet it many times hereafter, you 
ought to try to understand clearly what it means. The 
word comes from constituo, a Latin word which means 
fix, establish, settle. The constitution of a debating society 
is a set of fixed rules by which the society is to be per¬ 
manently governed, and from which it cannot rightfully 
depart. The constitution of a State is a document con¬ 
taining those fixed principles and rules by which a State 
must be governed, and from which neither the Governor, 
the lawmaker, nor the judge may depart. The consti¬ 
tution may be called the fundamental law of the State, 
because it is the foundation upon which all laws are built, 
just as the foundation of a house is the part upon which 
all the other parts rest. Think of a constitution as the 
foundation plan upon which a system of laws may be built. 

Description of a State Constitution.—In the last les¬ 
son you learned that every State has a written constitu¬ 
tion. Since this constitution is the fundamental law of 
a State you ought to have a clear notion of what it is like. 
I have before me the constitution of one of the States, 
and I will attempt to describe it to you very briefly. 
m 


THE STATE CONSTITUTION 


121 


It begins with a Declaration of Rights , which declares 
that a people have the right to govern themselves; that 
all citizens have a right to a trial by jury; that the Gov¬ 
ernor, the judges, and the lawmakers are responsible to 
the people for their actions; that all male adult citizens 
have the right to vote; that the legislative, executive, and 
judicial powers of government shall be separate; that there 
shall be freedom of speech and debate; that no one shall be 
compelled to give evidence against himself in a court of 
law; that the press shall be free; that no title of nobility 
shall be granted; that a man’s religion shall not be made 
a test for holding office; that the people have in themselves 
the right to form a new government. 

After declaring these and some other rights, the con¬ 
stitution takes up the three departments of government. 
As to the executive department, it states who may be 
elected Governor, how and when he may be elected, how 
long he shall serve, and what are his powers and duties. 
The powers and duties of other executive officers are also 
defined. After the executive we come to the legislative 
department. We are told what shall be the name of the 
Legislature, how it shall be composed, who may be its 
members, where it shall meet, how a law shall be passed, 
and, in a general w T ay, what kind of laws shall be passed, 
and what kind may not be passed. After the legislative 
comes the judicial department. The qualifications, duties, 
and powers of judges are explained, and the boundaries 
of the different judicial circuits are defined. 

Last of all comes the miscellaneous provisions. These 


122 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


relate to education, corporations, public debts, taxation, 
and amendments. 

The constitution altogether would make about forty 
pages of thisbook. There are forty-eight States, and each 
State has its own constitution and no two constitutions 
are alike, but all the State constitutions have a strong 
resemblance to the one that has been described. 

How the Constitution of a State is Made.—The con¬ 
stitution of a State is made by a body of men who are 
chosen to make a constitution and to do nothing else. 
This body is called the Constitutional Convention. This 
convention is composed of delegates elected by the people 
of the counties and cities of the State. In this constitu¬ 
tional convention the needs and wishes of the people of 
the State are discussed, and a constitution is carefully 
drawn up. 

After a constitution is agreed upon by the convention, 
it is usually submitted to the people to be voted upon. 
If a majority of the popular vote is cast for it, it stands 
as the constitution—the fixed plan of government. If 
it does not receive a majority of the votes, no further 
attention is paid to it; the work of the convention w r as 
in vain. If the people reject a proposed constitution, 
they must live under the old constitution until another 
convention is called, and a constitution is framed that 
will suit them. There have been some constitutional 
conventions that did not submit the constitution to the 
people to be voted upon, but instead declared it in force 
at once. In most of the States, however, the constitution 


THE STATE CONSTITUTION 


123 


was voted upon and adopted by the people before it be¬ 
came the law. 

How a Constitution is Changed.— We have called the 
constitution the fixed, unchanging plan of government. 
But it would not do for a constitution to remain un¬ 
changed and unchangeable forever. It sometimes hap¬ 
pens that a plan is good at one time and yet bad at an¬ 
other time; and a constitution that might have been 
good and wise in the year 1850, may, by the year 1950, 
have become foolish or harmful. If, then, there is some¬ 
thing in a constitution that ought not to be there, or if 
something ought to be there that is not there, how shall 
a change be made? The answer is: By amendment; the 
constitution is mended where it is weak. This is usually 
done as follows: The Legislature of the State passes the 
amendment which it thinks ought to be inserted in the 
constitution, and then submits the amendment to the people 
to be voted upon, for or against. If it gets the requisite 
number of the votes of the electors, the amendment be¬ 
comes a part of the constitution. Also, in a number of 
States, amendments may be secured through the operation 
of the initiative and referendum. 1 

When an entirely new constitution is desired, a new 
constitutional convention must be called. This is usu¬ 
ally done as follows: The Legislature submits to the peo¬ 
ple the question, whether they wish a new constitutional 
convention or not. If the people vote yes , the Legislature 
provides for the election of the delegates to the con- 


1 The initiative and referendum are explained on page 133. 


124 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


vention. The election is then held and the elected dele¬ 
gates meet in convention, make a new constitution, and 
submit it to the people to be voted upon, as has been ex¬ 
plained. You see that a constitution is adopted directly 
by the votes of the people. It is not adopted by the repre¬ 
sentatives of the people: it is very nearly the work of a pure 
democracy. 


QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

1. Get a copy of the constitution of your State, and examine it for 
answers to the following questions: 

(a) When was the constitution adopted by the people? 

( b ) About how many pages of this book would it make? 

(c) What are the principal rights declared? 

(d) Are there any amendments to the constitution as it now stands? 

If so, when and why were they adopted? 

(e) What provision of the constitution seems to be the most impor¬ 

tant? 

(/) Do you find anything in the constitution that you would like to 
see changed? 

(g) How would you proceed to get the constitution changed? 

2. Elect a committee consisting of classmates to draw up a constitu¬ 
tion for the government of a debating society. Provide in the consti¬ 
tution for election of officers, time and place of holding meetings, 
qualifications for membership, dues, fines, etc. The committee cannot 
do good work unless it takes as a model some suitable constitution 
already drawn up. The constitution drawn up should be submitted to 
the whole class for approval. 

3. How many constitutions has your State had during its entire 
history? 

4. Would it be wise for Maine and Louisiana to exchange constitu¬ 
tions? 

5. Does the constitution described in the lesson resemble closely the 
constitution of your State? 


XXIII. THE STATE LEGISLATURE 



A State Capitol 

the State government is transacted. If you have ever 
been in the capital of your State, you have doubtless 
visited the capitol, or Statehouse. This is usually a hand- 
125 


“ While acting as the representative of the people I shall be governed 
by their will on all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing 
what their will is, and upon all others I shall do what my own judgment 
teaches me will best advance their interests .”—Abraham Lincoln. 


When and Where the State Legislature Meets. —Each 
State has its capital , or the city in which the business of 







126 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


some building, containing many halls and offices. In 
this building is done the most important work of the 
State government. Here the Governor of the State and 
his assistants have their offices; here the highest judges 
of the State hold their courts; here the Legislature of the 
States meets to make laws. 

The Two Branches of the Legislature.—Let us sup¬ 
pose that you are in the Statehouse on the' morning a 
Legislature assembles for the first time. When the hour 
for meeting comes, the lawmakers, who have been mov¬ 
ing busily about in the corridors, talking with one another, 
divide into two bodies. The smaller number meet in a 
room at one end of the Statehouse. The lawmakers who 
meet in this room are somewhat advanced in years; they 
move about in a quiet and dignified manner. Many of 
them seem to be familiar with the place and to know how 
to begin with the business. These are the senators, this is 
the Senate chamber, and this branch of the Legislature is 
the Senate. 

The larger number of lawmakers assemble in a large 
hall at the opposite end of the Statehouse. This body, as 
we look upon it from a gallery, differs much in appear¬ 
ance from the Senate. The men (or men and women) are 
of all ages, from the young man of two and twenty to the 
gray-haired man of seventy. A few of them seem to be 
familiar with their surroundings, but many of them act as 
if they were in a strange place. These lawmakers are the 
representatives, and this is the House of Representatives. 

The Legislature of a State is always divided into these 


THE STATE LEGISLATURE 


127 


two branches,—an upper house, or Senate, and a lower 
house, or House of Representatives. In some States the 
lower house is called the Assembly, in others it is called 
the House of Delegates, in New Jersey it is called the 
General Assembly. In many of the States General As¬ 
sembly is a name for the whole Legislature. 

Election of Members of the Legislature. —Both the 
lower house and the Senate are representative bodies, that 
is, the members of both are sent to the capital to act in 
the place of the people. 

The counties (or towns) and cities are represented in 
the House of Representatives according to population. 
A county (or town), if it is small, may have but one repre¬ 
sentative, while a county with a large population may 
have two, or three, or four. In the same way a city may be 
represented by one, two, or more representatives, ac¬ 
cording as it is small or large. 

How is the number of representatives for a county or 
city determined? Every five or ten years a census of the 
people is taken,—that is, the people are counted,—and 
from this census it can be determined how many represen¬ 
tatives a county or city is entitled to. If it is the law that 
there should be at least one representative for 10,000 people, 
then a county with a population of 10,000 or under would 
be entitled to one representative; a county with a popula¬ 
tion of more than 10,000 and less than 20,000 would have 
two representatives; a city of 50,000 people, according to 
this rule, would have five representatives. But a lawmaking 
body should not be so large as to make it difficult to trans- 


128 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


act business in a quiet and deliberate manner. A State with 
1,000,000 inhabitants, represented by one representative 
for every 10,000 people, would have a House of Representa¬ 
tives consisting of 100 members. If the population of 
the State increases to 2,000,000, how would the law have 
to be changed so that the number of representatives 
would still be 100? 

A senator represents a larger number of people than is 
represented by a member of the House. The State is 
divided into senatorial districts, and from each of these 
districts one senator is elected. A senatorial district may 
include several counties, or several senators may represent 
one county. It is generally provided by law that senators 
shall be older than representatives, and for this reason 
they are supposed to be wiser than members of the lower 
house. They are elected to serve for longer terms than 
representatives, and they usually are men who have had 
more experience in matters of government. 

Organization.—After a roll call of the members, the 
first thing that is done in the newly elected House of 
Representatives is to choose a presiding officer, called a 
Speaker. The Speaker takes the chair, and then the 
House proceeds to elect some one who is not a member, 
as its Clerk or Secretary. The duty of this official is to 
write out in a large book, called the Journal , a full ac¬ 
count of everything that takes place in the House. The 
House next elects a Sergeant-at-Arms , an officer whose 
duty it is to keep order in the House, and to bring absent 
members to their seats when their presence is needed to 


THE STATE LEGISLATURE 


120 


make a quorum , that is, a sufficient number of members 
to do business. 

When the clerk and sergeant-at-arms, and such minor 
officials as messengers and doorkeepers, have been chosen 
by the vote of the House, the Speaker announces the 
Committees of the House . 

A committee of the House consists of a small number 
of members—three, or five, or seven, or nine—who have 
charge of some particular branch of legislative business. 
Thus if the Speaker appoints five members as the Com¬ 
mittee on Education, all matters coming up in the House 
relating to education are first referred to this committee. 
There are a great many committees. The most important 
are those on Finance, Corporations, the Judiciary, Elec¬ 
tions, Appropriations, Education, Labor, Manufactures, 
Agriculture, Public Buildings. 

If we had remained in the Senate during its opening 
hour, we should have seen almost the same things that we 
saw in the House. There might have been some differ¬ 
ence in the matter of the presiding officer. Most of the 
States have a Lieutenant Governor , and when this is the 
case, this officer, by virtue of his office, acts as President 
or Chairman of the Senate. Yet even where there is a 
Lieutenant Governor, the Senate elects a President pro 
tempore, who serves in the absence of that officer. So we 
may say that the Senate is organized in the same way that 
we saw the House of Representatives organized. It elects 
its Clerk, its Sergeant-at-Arms, its messengers and door¬ 
keepers, and the President announces just such committees 
F. Civil Govt.—9 


130 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


as are announced in the House. After the two houses have 
been organized as described, the Legislature is ready to 
begin its work,—to make laws for the welfare of the people. 

QUESTIONS FOR ORIGINAL WORK 

(Answers to a number of these questions can be found in the consti¬ 
tution of the Sta'te.) 

1. Is the capital of your State situated in the most suitable place7 
Are the citizens of the State proud of their Statehouse? 

2. What is the name of the lower house of the Legislature of your 
State? What is the name of the Legislature taken as a whole? When 
does the Legislature meet? How long may it continue in session? 

3. What are the qualifications for a senator in your State? For a 
representative? Do you know the name of the senator that represents 
you in the Senate? How many representatives in your Legislature? 
How many senators? 

4. What is the method of representation in your State? Is it gen¬ 
erally regarded as a just method? 

5. Is there a Lieutenant Governor in your State? 

6. What is the compensation of a senator? Of a representative? 

7. What is “mileage”? What is regarded as a quorum in the Leg¬ 
islature of your State? 


XXIV. THE STATE LEGISLATURE {Continued) 

“The convention, the campaign, the election, the division of the 
powers of government, the exercise of political rights, are merely for the 
purpose of making a law.”— F. N. Thorpe. 

How a Law is Made. —Let us now see how a law is 
passed in the Legislature. We will suppose that many 
people in the State wish a law to be passed, compelling 
railroad companies to run their tracks, wherever there is a 
road or street crossing, either above or below the road or 
street, so that the lives of pedestrians or those riding in 
vehicles may not be endangered. How will they get the 
law passed? They will get one of their representatives in 
the Legislature to take up their cause for them. A mem¬ 
ber, let us say, of the House, will prepare a bill , that is, 
the draft of a law, which compels railroads to lay their 
tracks either above or below grade at all public crossings. 
When the day arrives for introducing the bill, the mem¬ 
ber gives it to the Clerk of the House to read. This is 
called the first reading d 

After it is read the Speaker immediately refers the bill 
to the proper committee , which, in this case, is the Com¬ 
mittee on Railroads. In a few days the committee in 
its private room will give attention to the bill. Friends 
of the bill will appear before the committee and speak in 

1 The “first reading” often consists only of the reading of the title 
of the bill. 


131 


132 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


its favor; opponents of it will also be present to speak 
against it. After hearing both sides of the question, the 
committee makes its report to the House. If the com¬ 
mittee thinks there is no reason for such a law, it reports 
“unfavorably,” and there the matter will probably end: 
the bill is “killed in committee.” But if the committee 
thinks well of the bill, it reports “favorably.” 

This means that in the opinion of the committee the 
bill ought to become a law. The title of the bill is again 
read in the House, and if no objection is raised, it is al¬ 
lowed to pass upon its second reading. 

In its regular order the bill is taken up for its third and 
last reading. It is now read in full by the Clerk, and a 
discussion of it begins. Speeches are made in favor of it, 
and against it. If a member wishes to change a particular 
part of the bill, he offers an amendment to it. The amend¬ 
ment is voted upon, and if it receives a majority of the 
votes, the amendment becomes a part of the bill; if the 
amendment is voted down, the bill remains as it was be¬ 
fore. After a full discussion and debate, the measure 
comes to a final vote. The Speaker asks the House, “Shall 
the bill pass?” The House answers the question by taking 
a vote. If a majority vote aye (yes), the bill passes; if a 
majority vote no, or if the noes equal the ayes, the bill is 
lost; it is “killed in the House.” 

Let us suppose it passes in the House. It is then taken 
by the messenger of the House to the Senate. Here it 
has the same history that it had in the House. It is 
referred by the President of the Senate to the proper com- 


THE STATE LEGISLATURE 


133 


mittee, is read three times upon three different days, is 
fully discussed upon its last reading, is possibly amended, 
and is then voted upon. If it passes in the Senate with 
amendments, it must go back to the House in order that 
a vote may be taken upon it as amended by the Senate. 
When it has passed both Senate and House in the same 
form, the bill has passed the Legislature. 

In nearly all the States, however, a bill that has passed 
both houses of the Legislature is not yet a law, but must 
be sent to the Governor of the State for his approval. If 
the Governor signs it, or if he takes no action upon it 
within a fixed number of days, it becomes a law. The 
Governor may, however, veto the bill (p. 76) and send it 
back with his objections stated in writing. The Legislature 
may then take another vote upon the bill, and if it again 
passes both houses, it becomes a law in spite of the Gov¬ 
ernor’s veto. But in order to pass it over the Governor’s 
veto, it must, as a rule, get more than a bare majority of 
votes. In some States it must receive the votes of two- 
thirds of the members present; in others it must receive a 
majority of the votes of all the members elected. 

The Initiative and Referendum. —In some States, as 
in South Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Oklahoma, Missouri, Maine, 
Arizona, California, Idaho, Washington, and Ohio, the 
voters may engage personally in making the laws, by 
means of a device known as the “ initiative and referen¬ 
dum.” By this device a certain per cent of the voters 
may propose (the initiative) to the Legislature a bill which 
must be enacted into a proposed law and then referred 


134 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


back (the referendum ) to the people to be voted upon. 
Also, where the initiative and referendum is in force, the 
voters may keep their eyes on the work of the Legislature, 
and if they desire they may demand the privilege of voting 
on any law that the Legislature has passed. These are 
the words of the constitution of Oklahoma: 

“The people reserve to themselves the power to pro¬ 
pose laws and to enact or reject the same at the polls 
independent of the legislature, and also reserve power at 
their own option, to approve or reject at the polls any 
act of the legislature.” 

What the Legislature of a State May Do. —The best 

way to learn what the Legislature of a State may do, is 
to learn first what it may not do. First, it may not pass 
a law that is contrary to the constitution of the State. 
Second, it may not pass a law contrary to the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States. When we come to study this 
Constitution, we shall learn that there are certain powers 
of government granted to Congress, the body that makes 
laws for the United States. For instance, one cf the 
powers granted to Congress is to manage the post offices' 
of the country. A State Legislature, therefore, has no 
right to make laws relating to post offices. Again, in the 
Constitution of the United States, certain things are men¬ 
tioned which a State must not do. For example, a State 
must not coin money. Hence, a State Legislature has no 
right to establish a mint. 

Members of a State Legislature, then, should keep 
these two things in mind: First, they may not make laws 


THE STATE LEGISLATURE 


135 


contrary to the constitution of their own State; and, 
second, they may not make laws contrary to the Consti¬ 
tution of the United States. So long as it does not vio¬ 
late either of these two rules, a State Legislature is free 
to pass almost any law it pleases. It would take too long 
to name all the laws that can be passed, and that are 
passed, in the Legislature of a State. Sometimes at one 
session more than a thousand laws are passed. The fol¬ 
lowing is a list of a few of the things done by a State Leg¬ 
islature: 

(1) It grants charters, or makes a general law, for the 
government of cities, boroughs, and villages; it also grants 
charters, or makes a general law, for the organization of 
railroad companies, banks, colleges, and many other in¬ 
stitutions, public and private. 

(2) It makes laws for the government of the public 
schools. 

(3) It makes laws regulating taxation, licenses, fees. 

(4) It defines the boundaries of counties and towns. 

(5) It makes laws for the punishment of crime, such as 
treason, jnurder, arson, theft, bribery, forgery, fraud, perjury. 

(6) It makes laws concerning property, such as relate 
to the sale of lands, the giving of mortgages, the granting 
of deeds, the making of wills, the settlement of the estates 
of bankrupts, the management of the estates of the dead. 

(7) It makes laws concerning charity, health, marriage, 
divorce. 

(8) It makes laws concerning the qualifications of vot¬ 
ers and the time and manner of holding: elections. 


136 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


(9) It makes laws governing railroads, steamboats, ca¬ 
nals, telegraph companies, telephone companies. 

(10) It makes laws regulating hunting, fishing, mining, 
manufacturing, trading. 

It is plain that most of the laws that regulate us in our 
daily conduct, and in our daily pursuits, are made by the 
State. 

Honest Citizens for the Legislature. —Since the duties of 
the State lawmaker are so many and his powers are so 
great, voters should make every effort to elect only honest 
and intelligent citizens to the Legislature. The lawmakers 
of a State should be the wisest and best citizens in the 
State. There is good reason to believe that in some States 
bad men get laws passed for their own private benefit. 
They do this through bribery. They offer members of the 
Legislature some inducement to vote for a bill that is 
against the interests or the comfort of the great mass of 
people, and in the interest of their own selfish schemes. 
The voter on election day should think of this and try to 
prevent it. He should not vote to send to the Legislature 
a man who he believes can be bribed. Just as the happi¬ 
ness of the people of a city depends, in a great measure, 
upon the kind of men they send to the City Council, so the 
happiness of the people of a State depends, in a large 
measure, upon the kind of men they send to represent them 
in the State Legislature. If we can get good laws through 
the Legislature of our State, we have advanced a long way 
on the road to good government. 


THE STATE LEGISLATURE 


137 


QUESTIONS FOR ORIGINAL WORK 

1. Why are there two branches of the Legislature? Why should 
a bill be passed in both houses before it becomes a law? Why should 
there be three readings of a bill? 

2. Has a Governor of your State the veto power? What is the 
“pocket veto”? When a Governor vetoes a bill, does he act as a 
legislative or as an executive officer of government? 

3. If the Legislature of your State is in session, find out what im¬ 
portant measures are before it. Are you prepared to speak intelli¬ 
gently about any of these measures? Have you in mind any law you 
would like to see passed? How would you go about getting it passed? 

4. With what two documents should a member of the Legislature 
be familiar? 

5. What difference do you observe in the powers of the Legisla¬ 
ture and those of the City Council? 

6. What is meant by “sumptuary laws”? 

7. What is meant by the “lobby”? 

8. In what way may men be bribed without actually giving them 
money? 

9. If a Legislature consists of a body of rascals, whose fault is it? 

10. What is meant by “ gerrymandering ” ? 

11. What is meant by “ log-rolling ” ? 

12. What is meant by “ filibustering ”? 


XXV. THE GOVERNOR AND HIS COLLEAGUES 


“Strictly speaking, the Governor is not the head of the executive 
department, but a member of it. The executive department is par¬ 
celed out in several pieces, and his is one of the pieces .”—John Fiske. 

The Governor.—As soon as the lawmakers have passed 
all the laws that seem desirable, they leave the capital and 
go to their homes. It is left to the officers of the execu¬ 
tive department to see that the laws are obeyed. At the 
head of this department stands the Governor,—the pilot 
of the ship of State. The Governor is elected by the votes 
of the people. His term of office in some States is 
for two years; in others, it is for four years; in one 
State (New Jersey), it is for three years. His powers 
are great, but they are granted to him by the people, 
and if he abuses his power, he may be impeached. 
What are his powers and duties? 

The first duty of a Governor is to see that the laws are 
faithfully executed. If he learns that the law is being vio¬ 
lated either by public officers or by private persons, he must 
take steps to have the laws obeyed. To secure obedience 
he may call to his assistance judges and sheriffs and even 
the soldiers of the State, for he is the commander in chief 
of the land and naval forces of the State. Sometimes 
when a mob is bent on destroying life and property, the 
Governor calls out the troops and sends them against the 
mob. When public business is to be conducted between 
138 


THE GOVERNOR AND HIS COLLEAGUES 


139 


one State and another, the Governor acts in the name of 
the State. 

It is the Governor’s duty to send to the Legislature at 
the opening of the session a message. This message informs 
the Legislature of the condition of affairs throughout the 
State, and recommends the passage of such laws as the 
Governor thinks ought to be passed. The Legislature, how¬ 
ever, is not bound to pass, or even to consider, the laws 
recommended in a message. 

In time of danger or pressing need, if the Legislature is 
not in session the Governor may call it in extra session, so 
that it may at once pass such laws as the moment requires. 

The Governor, in many States, has the power to pardon 
criminals. He may forgive the offense entirely and restore 
the criminals to freedom, or he may commute the punish¬ 
ment, that is, he may make it less severe. Sometimes, 
when a person is sentenced to be hanged, the Governor 
commutes the punishment to imprisonment for life. For 
a good reason he will give a reprieve, postponing the ex¬ 
ecution of the death sentence. In some States this matter 
of pardon, commutation, and reprieve is not left to the 
Governor, but is intrusted to a special body of officers, 
known as the Board of Pardons. 

Another power of the Governor is that of appointment. 
In all the States there are many officers who are not elected 
directly by the people, but receive their positions by ap¬ 
pointment. Many of these appointments are made by the 
Governor. In some States he has the appointment of the 
judges of the State courts—a great responsibility. When 


140 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


an elective official dies or resigns before his term ends, 
the Governor fills the vacancy by appointing some one 
to serve until another election is held. When an officer is 
guilty of misconduct in office, the Governor in most States 
may remove him and put a better man in his place. 

Other Executive Officers. —The Governor cannot at¬ 
tend to all the public affairs of a State. He must have as¬ 
sistants, just as the Mayor of a city has heads of depart¬ 
ments to assist him. These assistants of the Governor are 
high executive officers of the State, and they are generally 
elected by the people. Below, you will find the names 
of most of them, with a short explanation of their du¬ 
ties: 

(1) The Lieutenant Governor. —A lieutenant is an officer 
who takes the place of a higher officer, when that officer 
is absent or cannot attend to his duties. Most of the 
States elect a Lieutenant Governor to serve when the Gov¬ 
ernor is out of the State or is unable to be at his post. The 
duties of the Lieutenant Governor are very few. We have 
seen that he has the right to act as the President of the 
State Senate; but he has no vote in that body except when 
there is a tie, that is, when there is an equal number of 
votes for and against a measure. When there is a tie, the 
Lieutenant Governor decides the question by voting on 
one side or on the other. In such a case he is said to have 
the casting vote. 

(2) The Secretary of State, sometimes elected, sometimes 
appointed by the Governor, is the highest clerk of the 
executive department. He has charge of State papers, 


THE GOVERNOR AND HIS COLLEAGUES 


141 


of the Journals of the Legislature, and of historical doc¬ 
uments, statuary, paintings, relics, etc., owned by the 
State. 

(3) The Suite Comptroller or Auditor. —A comptroller is 
a manager of accounts. The Comptroller of a State man¬ 
ages the financial business of the State government. Pie 
attends to business relating to the debt, the property, the 
claims, the revenue of the State. He superintends the col¬ 
lection of taxes due to the State, and examines the claims 
of those to whom the State owes money. When a debt of 
the State is to be paid, the Comptroller orders the State 
Treasurer to pay it. 

(4) The State Treasurer. —We shall learn hereafter 
that when a town or a county collects money by taxation, 
a certain portion of the money usually must be given 
over to the State government. This money is sent to the 
State Treasurer. He either keeps it in a large safe at the 
capitol or gives it to some reliable bank to keep. He may 
not pay out a dollar of it without an order from the Comp¬ 
troller. 

(5) The Attorney-General is the law officer of the State, 
corresponding to the prosecuting attorney of the county. 
When the State needs the services of a lawyer, he appears 
for it in the courts. 

(6) The Superintendent of Public Instruction is the high¬ 
est school officer of the State. He prepares a report 
every year or every two years. In this report he states 
the needs of the schools and suggests how they may be 
improved. He presides at the meeting of County Superin- 


142 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


tendents and at teachers’ institutes, and furthers the 
cause of education in whatever way he can. 

The foregoing executive officers are found in almost every 
State. In addition to these there are in many States still 
other executive officers and boards whose duties are very 
important. Among these may be mentioned: 

(1) The State Insurance Commissioner. 

(2) The State Board of Public Utilities. 

(3) The State Inspector of Factories. 

(4) The State Labor Commissioners. 

(5) The State Board of Charities. 

(6) The State Board of Health. 

(7) The State Tax Commissioner. 

(8) The State Board of Pardons. 

(9) The State Superintendent of Banks. 

(10) The State Board of Medical Examiners. 

(11) The State Commissioner of Agriculture. 

(12) The State Board of Public Works. 

It must not be supposed that every State has all these 
officers and boards, for each State has only such officers as 
it needs in the management of its own affairs. One officer 
will often perform the duties of two or more officers. 

Impeachment.—If it is charged that a high officer of 
the State is guilty of misconduct in office,—if, for example, 
the Governor is accused of having accepted a bribe for 
signing or for not signing a bill, or if a judge is accused of 
trying cases very unfairly,—the House of Representa¬ 
tives inquires into the charges, and if it finds that there is 
truth in them, it impeaches the offender, that is, it accuses 


THE GOVERNOR AND HIS COLLEAGUES 


143 


him of official misconduct. The trial of the officer thus 
impeached is conducted by the Senate. That body listens 
to the evidence against the impeached officer, and if it 
regards him guilty, it pronounces judgment against him. 
An officer who has been found guilty under impeachment, 
can no longer hold an office of honor, trust, or profit in 
the State. 


QUESTIONS FOR ORIGINAL WORK 

1. What is the name of the chief executive officer of your State? 

2. Examine the constitution of your State for answers to the follow¬ 
ing questions: 

(а) What are the qualifications of the Governor? 

(б) What is the length of his term of office? 

(c) What is his salary? 

( d ) Has he the power of veto? 

(e) Has he the pardoning power? 

(/) May he remove an inefficient officer? 

( g ) What officers does he appoint? 

(h) If there is no Lieutenant Governor, who will fill the vacancy if 

the Governor should die or resign? 

3. Ought the Lieutenant Governor to preside in the Senate at the 
trial of a Governor, whom the House has impeached? 

4. When the Senate tries an impeachment case, does it act as a 
legislative or as a judicial body? 

5. What are some of the qualifications of a good Governor? A good 
Comptroller? A good Attorney-General? A good State Superin¬ 
tendent of Public Instruction? 

6. Have you read a Governor’s message? What is a Governor’s 
“proclamation”? 

7. Does the constitution of your State provide for other executive 
officers not mentioned in the lesson? 

8. Make out a complete list of the executive officers and boards of 
your State. 


XXVI. JUDGES, JURIES, AND COURTS OF LAW 


“No man’s property is safe, and no man’s welfare is assured where 
justice is denied to the poor, or where crime goes unpunished; no State 
can prosper where human rights are not respected .”—David A. Wells. 

The Judicial Department.—You have learned how a 

law is made, and you have learned the names and duties 
of those officers who compel obedience to the laws. But 
before an officer can punish a person for disobeying the 
law, it must first have been decided that the one accused 
is actually guilty. You will remember that the decision 
of this question is left neither to those who make the laws, 
nor to those who are to enforce them, but to a third body 
of men, the judicial officers or judges of the State. Every 
State has a complete judicial system by which citizens 
may defend their rights and secure justice. It is this judi¬ 
cial system that we are now to study. We will begin with 
the lowest part of the system and proceed to the highest. 

The Justice of the Peace.—Let us suppose that a house 
has been burned in your neighborhood, and that a man 
named X is suspected of having burned it. Some citizen 
who is interested, perhaps the owner of the house, will file 
a complaint against X before a justice of the peace. This 
officer, though chosen for some one town or city or county, 
is an officer of the State, and he acts in the name of the 
State. He renders decisions only in small and unimportant 
cases. Thus, if a man is sued for a few dollars, or if he is ar- 
144 


JUDGES, JURIES, AND COURTS OF LAW 


145 


rested for drunkenness, or fast driving, his case could be 
decided before a justice of the peace. 

When the complaint of house burning is filed against 
X, the justice of the peace gives a constable, or policeman, 
a warrant for the arrest of the accused, who is brought into 
the justice’s court. Since X is charged with having com¬ 
mitted a serious crime,—the crime of arson,—the justice 
cannot try his case. But he can do this: He can listen to 
witnesses for and against X, and if he believes that the 
accused is probably guilty, he may send him to jail to 
await trial in a higher court. But this trial may not come 
up in a higher court for several months, and if X is an in¬ 
nocent man,—and the law supposes he is innocent until 
he is proved guilty,—it would be a great hardship for him 
to have to lie in jail for so long. This he need not do if 
he can get bail. To give bail, he must get one or more of 
his friends to sign an agreement to pay the State a certain 
sum of money if he should fail to appear in court for trial 
when he is wanted. This agreement is a bond, and those 
who sign it are bondsmen. If X runs away before trial, 
he is said to “jump bail.” Let us suppose he is able to 
give bail, and that he awaits his trial like a man. 

The Circuit Court.—The trial of X will take place be¬ 
fore a judge or judges of the Circuit Court—in some States 
called the District Court, in others the Superior Court, 
in others the Supreme Court, in still others the Court of 
Common Pleas. This court sits in the courthouse of the 
county seat two or three times in a year. The same judge 
or judges may serve in several counties, going from one 
F. Civil Govt.—10 


146 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


county to another. It is for this reason they are so often 
called circuit judges. They are generally elected by the 
people, although in some States they are appointed by the 
Governor. In all cases, like justices of the peace, they act 
in the name of the State. 

Into this Circuit Court X is brought for trial. The 
crime that he is accused of is supposed to have been com¬ 
mitted not against the person whose house was burned, but 
against society, against the whole body of people, against 
the State. It is the State, therefore, that brings him to 
trial. The prosecuting attorney (p. 88) brings the case 
before the grand jury, 1 a body of citizens varying from 
seven to twenty-three in number, whose business it is 
to find violators of the law and to present them to the 
court for trial. These grand jurymen summon the 
witnesses who will testify against X, but not those who 
will testify in his favor. If it is the opinion of at least 
twelve of the grand jury that X ought to be tried for the 
burning of the house, the prosecuting attorney will draw 
up an indictment, containing the charges against him, and 
the foreman of the grand jury will write across the back of 
the indictment the words, “A true bill.” This means that 
X must stand a trial in court. 

The examination by the grand jury was secret; but the 
trial in court is open to the public. When X is brought 
into court, the indictment is read to him, and he is asked 

1 In some States there is no grand jury. Where this is the case the 
prosecuting attorney determines whether a case shall be brought to 
trial. 


JUDGES, JURIES, AND COURTS OF LAW 


147 


whether he is “guilty” or “not guilty.” His reply is 
called a 'plea. If his plea is “guilty,” the judge sentences 
him to be punished according to law. If his plea is “not 
guilty,” the judge appoints a time for his trial. 

The trial begins by the selection of twelve citizens to 
act as a jury to decide whether he is guilty or not. This is I 



called the petit jury, or small jury, to distinguish it from 
the grand jury. The members of the petit jury, like those 
of the grand jury, are chosen from among the citizens of 
the neighborhood,—from farmers, mechanics, merchants. 
Some of them may be neighbors of X. Before they are 
allowed to serve, they must swear that they have not 
formed an opinion upon the guilt or innocence of the 
prisoner, and that they will decide the case according to 












































148 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


the evidence that is presented to them. After they have 
taken this oath, the jurymen sit in the “jury box” and 
listen to the testimony of witnesses. 

In a trial, there are always two parties, one called the 
; plaintiff , who brings the complaint or suit into court, and 
another, called the defendant, or the one against whom the 
complaint is brought. In the case before us the State is 
the plaintiff, and X is the defendant. The prosecuting at¬ 
torney, in behalf of the plaintiff, presents the case against 
the defendant and examines witnesses for the State. An¬ 
other lawyer speaks in behalf of X and examines witnesses 
in his favor. After the evidence on both sides has been 
heard, the jury retire to a private room to talk the matter 
over and come to a decision. If they can all agree, 1 they 
return to the courtroom with their verdict. If the verdict is 
“ guilty,” the judge will pronounce sentence upon the pris¬ 
oner in open court and give him over to the sheriff for pun¬ 
ishment ; if the verdict is “ not guilty,” X is set free, and he 
cannot be tried again for the same offense (p. 44). 

The Supreme Court. —If after X is sentenced, his law¬ 
yer can show that strict justice has not been secured, he 
may take the case to a higher court, usually called the 
Supreme Court, or Court of Appeals ,—the highest court of 
the State. The judges of this court meet at the capital of 
the State and hear appeals in cases that have been tried in 
the lower courts. The Supreme Court will not try the case 
of X over again, but it will listen to his appeal, and if it is 

1 In a few States the agreement of three fourths of the members of 
a jury is sufficient to render a verdict. 


JUDGES, JURIES, AND COURTS OF LAW 


149 


shown that the judges in the court below did not try the 
case according to law, it will order a new trial and thus give 
X another chance for his freedom; if it finds that the trial 
was properly conducted in the lower court, X will have to 
bear his punishment. 

Civil and Criminal Cases. —Cases that involve crime, 
like the case of X, are called criminal. Most of the cases, 
however, that are tried in courts do not relate to crime, 
but to the ownership of property. Such cases are called 
civil. The chief difference between a criminal and a civil 
case, is that in a criminal case the plaintiff is the State; 
while in a civil case, the plaintiff is a private person or a 
corporation. The history of a civil case in the courts is 
quite like that of a criminal case. If the amount of prop¬ 
erty at stake is small, it may be tried before a justice of 
the peace. If the amount is large, the case is tried in 
the Circuit Court (or District Court), and if satisfaction is 
not obtained, then it may be taken to the Supreme Court. 


QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Examine the constitution of your State for answers to the follow¬ 
ing questions: 

(a) Name the different courts of the State. 

(b) Are judges of the courts elected or appointed? 

(c) What are the qualifications of a judge? 

(d) How long do the judges hold office? 

(e) What salaries are given to the different judges? 

(/) How may a judge be removed from his office? 

( g ) Are justices of the peace elected or appointed? 

( h ) Are there in this State other courts than those mentioned in the 

lesson? 


150 


STATE GOVERNMENT 


2. Can the people choose by their votes a better judge than the 
Governor can select? 

3. Why should the term of office of a judge be longer than that of 
other officers? 

4. In what court would you sue a man for a debt of two dollars? 
For a debt of ten thousand dollars? In what court would a man 
accused of murder be tried? A boy accused of disorderly conduct? 

5. Which are the most important, good lawmakers, good executive 
officers, or good judges? 

6. What are some of the unpleasant things a judge is called upon 
to do? 

7. Write a description of the kind of a man you think would make a 
good judge. 

8. What are the advantages of trial by jury? 


XXVII. THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION 


11 Great were the hearts and strong the minds 
Of those who framed, in high debate, 

The immortal league of love, that binds 

Our fair broad Empire, State with State.”— Bryant. 

Introduction. —We have now studied the leading facts 
connected with several of the governments by which we 
are controlled. We have studied the government of the 
family and learned the rights and duties of parents and 
children; we have studied the government of the school 
and learned the rights and duties of pupils and teachers; 
we have studied the government of the city, county, and 
town, and have learned what are the powers and duties 
of the officers of these governments; we have studied the 
government of the State and we have learned how State 
laws are made and enforced. We shall now take up the 
study of a government which spreads its power over all 
the States. I mean our National Government, the gov¬ 
ernment of the United States. 

The Articles of Confederation.— In 1783 the thirteen 
States were held together by the Articles of Confederation, 
a form of government that had been adopted during the 
Revolutionary War. Whatever may have been the value 
of these Articles in times of danger from a foreign foe, in 
times of peace they were almost worthless. They gave 
Congress a right to make certain useful laws, but they 
151 


162 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


gave it no power to enforce those laws; they gave it the 
right to declare war, but they did not give it the right to 
compel men to serve in the army; they gave it the right 
to borrow money, but they did not give it the right to 
raise money by taxation in order to pay the debt. In other 
words, the government of the United States under* 
Articles of Confederation was a legislature only: it lacked 
v .he executive and judicial powers It was like a three- 
egged stool with two legs gone. Of course, such a govern¬ 
ment could not be respected. 

Yet the people of the States felt there ought to be union, 
and that there ought to be a general government that 
would have power enough to make itself respected. What 
prevented such a union? It was the pride and jealousy of 
the States. Each State was free to do just as it chose, 
and if a strong union was formed, some of the freedom 
would have to be surrendered. Things went from bad to 
worse under the Confederation. Congress was mobbed at 
one time by a crowd of drunken men; soldiers who had 
served in the war clamored for their pay, but there was no 
way to raise money for them. One State quarreled with 
another. Washington and Madison and Hamilton and 
other statesmen saw these evils and took steps to remedy 
them before it was too late. 

The Constitutional Convention of 1787.—It was one 

of the evils under the Confederation that the people of 
different States could not trade freely with each other. 
The New Jersey farmer could not carry his produce into 
New York without first, paying a tax upon it. Each State 


THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION 


153 


had its own customhouse, and collected taxes upon goods 
brought from foreign countries and turned the money into 
its own treasury. This made the burden of taxation un¬ 
equal in the different States. With the purpose of remedy¬ 
ing this state of things, and taking measures to make the 
laws of trade uniform, a convention was called to meet at 
Annapolis in 1786. But as only five of the thirteen States 
responded to the call the delegates thought it unwise to 
proceed further with the business. They did, however, 
make a report, recommending that another convention 
should meet in the following year. Congress issued the 
call for the convention, and all the States, excepting 
Rhode Island, sent delegates to it. 

In May, 1787, these delegates from twelve States met in 
Philadelphia for the purpose of amending the Articles of 
Confederation in such a manner as to correct the evils 
which have been described. In this Convention were some 
of the ablest men our country has produced. There were 
Washington and Madison and Hamilton and Franklin. 
These men did not work for their own selfish interests, or 
even for the advantage of a particular State, but for the 
advantage of all the States. The sessions of the Conven¬ 
tion were secret, but we know most of the things that 
were said and done in it. It soon agreed that the govern¬ 
ment under the Confederation was weak and worthless, 
and that an entirely new form of government was nec¬ 
essary. It saw that, instead of a “ league of friendship,” 
between the States, as the Confederation was called, there 
ought to be a real union of the people. How was this to be 


154 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


accomplished? It could not be accomplished unless the 
States gave up some of their rights, and would they be 
willing to do this? Most of the members thought the 
States would. For four months the subject was debated, 
and at last a Constitution for the government of the Uni¬ 
ted States was agreed upon. 



Room Where the Constitutional Convention Met 

The Constitution proposed by the Convention was sent' 
to the several States for their approval. In almost every 
State it met fierce opposition. The new government, it 
was claimed, would crush out the rights of the States, 
and destroy the freedom of individuals. But the Consti¬ 
tution had strong supporters, and one by one the States 
voted to accept it. It was provided that when nine States 
approved of it, it should go into effect. By July, 1788, it 
































































THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION 


155 


had been approved by nine States, and it therefore be¬ 
came the supreme law of the States which adopted it. 

Amendments to the Constitution. —The Constitution 
framed by the Convention of 1787 is the Constitution 
under which we live to-day. Nineteen important 
amendments, however, have been added to it. At first 
many people were fearful lest the new National Gov¬ 
ernment would prove to be a giant that would crush the 
rights of States and of citizens. So the States hastened 
to add the first eleven amendments, which are intended 
to curb the power of the National Government. In 1804 
the Twelfth Amendment was added for the purpose of 
preventing confusion in the election of the President 
and Vice President. The Thirteenth Amendment abol¬ 
ished slavery. The Fourteenth made it impossible 
for the States or for the United States to deprive any 
person of life, liberty, or property without due process 
of law (p. 44). The Fifteenth Amendment declares 
that the right of suffrage shall not be denied on account 
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The 
Sixteenth Amendment gives Congress full power to levy 
an income tax. The Seventeenth provides for the elec¬ 
tion of Senators by popular vote. The Eighteenth pro¬ 
hibits the liquor traffic. The Nineteenth gives women 
the right to vote on equal terms with men. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

(Examine the Constitution for answers to the following questions.) 

1. Name ten leading men who sat in the Convention of 1787. 

2. In what two ways may the Constitution be amended? 

3. Repeat the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States. 


XXVIII. CONGRESS 


“The American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonder¬ 
ful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of 1 
man .”—William E. Gladstone . 

The Two Houses of Congress. —The men of the Con¬ 
vention of 1787 came together for the purpose of simply 
revising the old Articles of Confederation, but they soon 
found that the old government was not worth patching 
up. So they bravely planned an entirely new govern¬ 
ment, one that was to have enough power and that was 
to have officers enough to do the work of a government. 
They provided for a government of three departments, 
the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. 

The Constitution provides first (Article I) for the leg¬ 
islative branch. It provides that laws of the National 
Government shall be made by a body called a Congress, 
and that the Congress shall have two branches, a Senate 
and a House of Representatives. This Congress every 
year, on the first Monday in December, meets in the mag¬ 
nificent Capitol at Washington; the Senate at the north 
end of the building, the House of Representatives at the 
south end. 

The House of Representatives.— It is the purpose of 
the Constitution that the will of the people shall be ex¬ 
pressed in the House of Representatives. Hence, members 
of this branch of Congress are elected by a direct popular 

156 


CONGRESS 


157 



vote, and each State is represented according to its popu¬ 
lation. 

During the first years of National Government a State 
was allowed one representative for every 30,000 inhabit¬ 
ants. If this number had remained unchanged, the House 
of Representatives would now consist of about 3500 mem¬ 
bers, and would be a body much too large for the transac- 


House of Representatives in Session 

tion of business in a deliberate way. But it has not 
remained unchanged; as population has increased, the 
number of inhabitants for each representative has been 
made larger. In the apportionment made by Congress 
after the census of 1910 (and not changed after the census 
of 1920), one representative was allowed for every 211,877 
inhabitants. This gave Delaware one member in the 

























158 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


House, and New York forty-three members. The repre¬ 
sentatives from all the States number 435. Each State 
is divided by its Legislature into the proper number of 
Congressional Districts , each district electing one represen¬ 
tative. Thus Indiana, which has thirteen members in the 
House of Representatives, is divided into thirteen con¬ 
gressional districts. 

The House of Representatives, upon meeting, organizes 
in very much the same way that the lower house in a 
State Legislature is organized. A Speaker, a Clerk, a 
Sergeant-at-Arms, and Messengers are elected, and the 
Committees of the House are chosen. 



Senate in Session 


The Senate.—The States are represented in Congress 
by senators. It was the purpose of those who framed the 
Constitution to preserve the power and dignity of the 






















CONGRESS 


159 


State as far as possible. For this reason one State is as 
well represented in the Senate as another; each State, 
whether great or small, being entitled to two senators. 
Nevada, with a population of less than 100,000, has as much 
power in the Senate as has New York, with a population 
of over 10,000,000. This, at first sight, may seem to be 
unjust, but the more you study the subject the more rea¬ 
son you will see for the law. Probably the only way to 
enable the smaller States to preserve their rights is to give 
them equal power with the larger States in the Senate. 
Senators are elected directly by the voters of the different 
States. The election is so arranged that when a new Con¬ 
gress meets only one third of the Senate can consist of new 
members. As there are now forty-eight States, the Senate 
consists of ninety-six members; and sixty-four or more of 
these are experienced lawmakers. 

How a Law is Passed in Congress. —A law is passed 
in Congress in almost the same way that one is passed in 
the Legislature of a State. A bill is introduced into one 
of the houses, is referred to its proper committee, is re¬ 
ported upon, is read three times upon three different days, 
is voted upon, and if it receives a majority of votes, is 
sent to the other house, where it has almost the same his¬ 
tory. If it passes in this house, also, it is sent to the 
President for his approval. If he approves the bill, he 
signs it and it becomes a law. If he does not approve it, 
he vetoes it; that is, he returns it without his signature 
and with his objections. If the bill is voted upon again, 
and is favored by a two-thirds vote in each house, not- 


160 


NATIONAL GOVERN MENT 


withstanding the objections of the President, it becomes 
a law without his approval. 

The Power of Congress Limited. —What are the powers 
of our national lawmaking body? A glance at history will 
help you to understand the answer to this question. You 
remember that just after the Declaration of Independence 
each State had in itself nearly all the powers of government. 
Almost everything that a government can wisely do the 
government of a State could do. The States were proud 
of this great power. Like individuals they loved their 
pride and their will. Now, when the Union was formed, in 
1787-89, it was necessary to give up some of this power. 
But the States were careful to give up as little power as 
possible, and they were extremely careful to have it un¬ 
derstood just what powers they meant to give up, and to 
reserve for themselves all powers that they did not give 
up. Therefore, certain definite powers of the new govern¬ 
ment were plainly stated in the Constitution. These 
powers it might exercise, and no others. All powers not 
granted to the general government were reserved to the 
State. The answer to the question, “ What can Congress 
do?” is this: It can do what the Constitution says it 
can do, and it can do no more. The answer to the ques¬ 
tion, “What can the Legislature of a State do?” is this: 
It can do anything that is not contrary to the constitu¬ 
tion of the State, or to the Constitution of the United 
States. In other words, Congress is a lawmaking body 
with limited powers. What these powers are will be the 
subject of the next lesson. 


CONGRESS 


161 


QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Examine the second and third sections of the first Article of the 
Constitution and fill the blanks properly: 

A member of the House of Representatives is elected to serve for 
-years. No person can be elected in this branch of Congress un¬ 
less he is at least-years of age and has been a citizen of the- 

for at least-years. He must also, when elected, be a resident of the 

-in which he is elected. A senator of the United States is elected by 

the-of a-to serve for-years. He must be at least- 

years of age, and must at the time of his election be a resident of the 
—»t in which he is elected. 

2. What are the names of the senators who represent your State in 
Congress? 

3. How many representatives does your State send to Congress? 
In what congressional district do you live? What is the name of your 
representative? Does your State send to Congress men of distinction? 


XXIX. CONGRESS (Continued) 


What Congress May Do. —Most of the powers of Con¬ 
gress are stated in the eighth section of the first article 
of the Constitution. That section gives Congress the 
power: 

(1) “ To lay and collect taxes, 11 for the support of the Na¬ 
tional Government. How great is the sum necessary to 
support the National Government and how Congress raises 
this sum will be learned hereafter (p. 219). 

(2) “ To borrow money on the credit of the United States. 11 
—When a government borrows money it gives the lender 
a note of promise stating the amount loaned, the time 
of payment, and the rate of interest to be paid. The 
notes thus issued by a government are called bonds. The 
United States has borrowed vast sums by issuing bonds. 
In 1866 its interest-bearing debt was nearly $2,500,- 
000,000; in 1892, about $600,000,000; in 1923 about 
$23,000,000,000. 

(3) “To regulate commerce with foreign nations and 
among the several States . 11 —You remember it was a desire 
to regulate commerce that led to the calling of the Con¬ 
vention of 1787. Under this power Congress regulates 
the importation of foreign goods, makes rules for the reg¬ 
ulation of foreign shipping, regulates immigration, pro¬ 
vides life-saving stations along the coast, improves har¬ 
bors, opens rivers to navigation, directs the work of the 

162 




CONGRESS 


163 


great Interstate Commerce Commission (of which we shall 
learn on p. 198), and does many other useful things. 

(4) “To establish an uniform rule of naturalization ” 
(p. 35). 

(5) “ To establish laws on the subject of bankruptcies 

(6) “ To coin money.” 

(7) “To fix the standard of weights and measures ”—A 
yardstick should be just as long, and a pound weight just 
as heavy in Pennsylvania, as the one or the other is in 
California, and Congress has the right to require that this 
shall be the case. The National Government presents a 
full set of weights and measures to the government of each 
State, and the State adopts these as correct. Thus through¬ 
out all the States merchants use standard weights and 
measures. 

(8) “To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the 
securities and current coin of the United States .” 

(9) “To establish post-offices and post-roads .” 

(10) “To promote the progress of science and useful arts 
by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the 
exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries 
—Authors are encouraged to write good books by giving 
them a copyright upon their works. The person who has 
a copyright upon a book is the only one who can print and 
sell it. A copyright lasts for twenty-eight years. It is 
secured by entering the title and sending two copies of 
the printed book, promptly after the day of publication, 
to the Library of Congress in Washington. Congress 
encourages useful inventions by granting patents to in- 


164 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


ventors. A patent upon a machine gives the one who 
holds the patent the exclusive right to make and sell or 
use the machine. Rights under a patent last for seventeen 
years. The inventor sends a drawing and a model of his 
invention to the Commissioner of Patents, at Washing¬ 
ton, and if it is found that he has invented something 
really new a patent will be granted. 

(11) 11 To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme 
Court” 

(12) “ To define and punish piracies and felonies com¬ 
mitted on the high seas , and offenses against the law of na¬ 
tions” —Piracy is robbery upon the sea. The National 
Government punishes pirates because their crime is com¬ 
mitted outside of the boundary of a State. When a citizen 
commits an offense against a foreign nation the injured 
nation regards the offender as a citizen of the United 
States, and not a citizen of a State. It is the National 
Government, therefore, that must punish piracies and 
offenses against the law of nations. 

(13) 11 To declare war , grant letters of marque and re¬ 
prisal , and make rules concerning captures on land and 
water” —-As the evils of war would fall on many States, 
ft is not right that a single State should be allowed to de¬ 
clare war. War, therefore, can be declared only by Con¬ 
gress, and conducted by the National Government. Some¬ 
times Congress has granted to private persons the right to 
go and seize certain property belonging to a foreign country. 
Such a commission, called a letter of marque and reprisal , 
cannot be granted by a State. When in times of war 


CONGRESS 


165 


valuable property is captured, the prize must be divided 
among the captors according to the directions of the Na¬ 
tional Government. 

(14) “ To raise and support armies. ” 

(15) “ To provide and maintain a navy. ” 

(16) “To make rules for the regulation of the land and 
naval forces.” 

(17) “To provide for calling forth the militia to execute 
the laws of the Union , suppress insurrections, and repel in¬ 
vasions.” —The militia of a State consists of all its able- 
bodied male citizens between the ages of eighteen and 
forty-five. The law usually excuses the civil officers of 
government, clergymen, teachers, physicians, and firemen 
from military service. With these exceptions, every strong 
man in the country is a member of the militia, and may 
be called upon to serve in the army. 

(18) “To exercise exclusive legislation” over the Dis¬ 
trict of Columbia. 

(19) “To make all laws which shall he necessary and 
proper for carrying into execution the . . . powers vested 
hy this Constitution.” 

Besides the powers mentioned in the eighth section of 
the first article, the Constitution elsewhere gives Congress 
power: 

(20) “ To provide for the case of removal, death, resigna¬ 
tion, or inability, both of the President and Vice President .”— 
Under this power, Congress has passed a law providing 
that if both President and Vice President die, the Secre¬ 
tary of State stall act as President; if the Secretary of 


166 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


State dies, the Secretary of the Treasury shall act as Presi¬ 
dent; and so on down in the Cabinet, the Secretary of War 
coming third, the Attorney-General fourth, the Postmaster- 
General fifth, the Secretary of the Navy sixth, the Secre¬ 
tary of the Interior seventh. 

(21) To admit new States into the Union. 

(22) “To make all needful rules and regulations respect¬ 
ing the territory belonging to the United States.” 

What Congress May Not Do. —In order to guard the 
interests of the States, the framers of the Constitution 
were careful to mention certain things that the National 
Government may not do. What these things are may be 
found in the ninth section of the first article of the Con¬ 
stitution. 

(1) Slavery. —The first prohibition refers to the impor¬ 
tation of slaves, but as slavery has been abolished we may 
pass this subject by. (See Article XIII of the Amend¬ 
ments.) 

(2) The writ of habeas corpus (p. 38) shall not be sus¬ 
pended, except in cases of rebellion or invasion. 

(3) No bill of attainder shall be passed. This means 
that Congress may not condemn a person to death, or to 
outlawry and banishment, without opportunity for de¬ 
fending himself in a court of law. 

(4) No ex post facto law shall be passed. An ex post facto 
law establishes or increases the penalty of an act after it 
has been committed. For example, if Congress should 
pass a law establishing the penalty of death upon a man 
found guilty of counterfeiting a year ago, when the penalty 


CONGRESS 


167 


a year ago was fine and imprisonment, such a law would be 
ex post facto. 

(5) “No capitation or other direct tax shall he laid unless 
in proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore di¬ 
rected to be taken.” —This means that if Congress should 
pass a capitation tax, or poll tax, it must be the same 
in all States. If a direct tax on property should be 
laid by Congress, it would have to be apportioned among 
the States in proportion to their populations. 1 Thus, if 
the United States Government should raise $35,000,000 
by a direct tax, the property holders of Georgia would pay 
about $1,000,000 of the sum, for the population of this 
State is about one thirty-fifth of the entire population of 
the Union. 

(6) “No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from 
any State. No preference shall be given by any regulation of 
commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of 
another.” 

(7) “No title of nobility shall be granted by the United 
States .”—Such titles as Prince, Duke, Earl, etc., are not 
in keeping with democratic government, and very properly 
they cannot be conferred by Congress. 

AN EXERCISE 

Give reasons why each of the powers which have been granted to 
Congress ought to be exercised by the National Government rather 
than by the State. 

1 The Sixteenth Amendment excepts the income tax from this 
restriction. 


XXX. THE PRESIDENT; HIS ELECTION 

Sir, I would rather be right than be President .”—Henry Clay. 


Introduction.—The Congress, making use of such 
powers as the Constitution gives it,—the powers described 
in the last lesson—passes the laws that seem to be nec¬ 
essary, and then adjourns; the more than 500 members of 
the great lawmaking body leave Washington and return to 
their homes. The duty of enforcing and executing the 
laws of Congress rests almost entirely with the executive 
department, at the head of which is the President of the 
United States. 

One of the first things we want to know about the Pres¬ 
ident of the United States is, how is the great official 
chosen? How do 100,000,000 people select one of their 
number to act as their chief magistrate? The Constitu¬ 
tion provides in a general way 1 for the election of the 
President, but since that election is conducted by politi¬ 
cal parties we can best understand the election of the Pres¬ 
ident by observing the workings of a political party dur¬ 
ing a year in which a President is to be elected. 

The Nomination of a Presidential Candidate.—Before 
a man can hope to be President, he must be named as the 
candidate of a great party. Among the millions of voters 
in a great political party, there are many public men who 

1 See the first section of Article II and also the Twelfth Amendment. 

168 


THE PRESIDENT; HIS ELECTION 


169 


are eager to be its candidate for President. The first ques¬ 
tion to be answered, then, is: How is the presidential candi¬ 
date of a political party elected? How, for illustration, 
does the Democratic party select its candidate ? 

The first step is taken several months before the election 
in November. In April or in May, the party holds its 
(1) Primary , or first election. 1 At this election the Demo¬ 
cratic voters in the different townships, villages, and cities 
of a county choose delegates to represent them in a county 
Democratic convention. 2 These delegates may go instructed 
to act in the interest of a certain man as the party candi¬ 
date for President, or they may go free to act as their 
judgment directs. 

In a few days after the primary election the delegates 
from all the townships, villages, and cities of the county 
assemble (usually at the county seat) as the (2) Democratic 
County Convention. This body, consisting sometimes of 
twenty or thirty members, sometimes of a much larger 
number, elects delegates to go to a State Convention. 2 
These delegates, in turn, may be instructed or uninstructed. 

A few weeks after the holding of the county convention, 
delegates from all the counties of the State assemble at 
some convenient place, as the (3) Democratic State Conven¬ 
tion . This body, consisting sometimes of several hundred 

1 Sometimes called a Caucus. 

2 In some States, however, there is a district convention instead of 
the county convention, and in some this convention is omitted, and 
the delegates to the State convention are chosen by the voters in the 
primary. 


170 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


men and women, passes resolutions expressing the political 
views of the party in the State, names its choice for presi¬ 
dential candidate—if it has a choice—and elects delegates 
to the Democratic National Convention. The number of 
delegates sent to represent a State in the Democratic Na¬ 
tional Convention, is twice the number of the senators and 
representatives of the State in the National Congress. In 
most of the States, however, the State Convention elects 
only four delegates (called delegates at large) to the Na- 



A Convention 


tional Convention, the other delegates being elected at 
Congressional District Conventions. In some States the 
delegates to the National Convention are chosen or in¬ 
structed, or both, by the voters at the primaries. 

By July or August all the State conventions have been held, 
and delegates have been elected to the great (4) Democratic 
National Convention. This body, consisting of more than 














THE PRESIDENT; HIS ELECTION 


171 


1000 members, representing all parts of the country, 
meets in some convenient city. After several days of dis¬ 
cussion, and after adopting a platform expressing the views 
of the party upon public questions, it elects the Democratic 
candidates for President a*nd for Vice President. 

In almost the same way, beginning with the primary 
election, and advancing to the County, State, and National 
conventions, the Republican Party selects its presidential 
candidates. The other political parties, the Socialist Party 
and the Prohibition Party, select their candidates in a 
somewhat different manner, but in most things all the 
parties follow the same plan. 

The Election of the President.—After all the political 
parties have named their respective candidates, the cam¬ 
paign begins. Political meetings are held, at which ora¬ 
tors set forth the-claims of their candidates and defend the 
platform of their party; in the cities processions march 
through the streets with great display of banners, torches, 
and fireworks, while bands of music play spirited airs; 
everything' that can be done to influence voters is done. 
The campaign continues until election day, the first Tues¬ 
day after the first Monday in November. On this day 
every fourth year about 25,000,000 citizens go to the 
polls to express their choice for President. But they do 
not vote for a President directly; they vote for a set of men 
called Electors , whose duty is to vote for a President and 
Vice President. Each State is entitled to a number of elec¬ 
tors equal to the number of its senators and representa¬ 
tives in Congress. Delaware, having one representative 


172 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


and two senators, is entitled to three electors; New York, 
having forty-three representatives and two senators, is 
entitled to forty-five electors. There are in all the States 
531 presidential electors. The names of the State electors 
of each party are printed on the ballot under the party 
name, and those who receive the highest number of votes 
are elected and are morally bound to vote for the candidate 
of the party that elected them. 

The successful electors of each State meet on the sec¬ 
ond Monday in January following the election, and vote 
for President and Vice President. The result of this vote 
is sent in a sealed envelope to the President of the Senate 
at Washington. On the second Wednesday of the follow¬ 
ing February, the President of the Senate, in the presence 
of both Houses of Congress, opens the envelopes contain¬ 
ing the electoral vote of the different States, and the votes 
are counted. The person who has a majority (266 or more) 
of the votes cast for President, is declared to be elected 
President of the United States, and the person who has a 
majority of the votes cast for Vice President is declared to 
be elected Vice President of the United States. (See Con¬ 
stitution, Article XII of Amendments.) 

Cases have happened in our history when no candidate 
had a majority of all the electoral votes. When this is 
the case the House of Representatives chooses a Presi¬ 
dent and the Senate a Vice President. When electing a 
President, the House must choose from the three highest 
on the list of the persons voted for by the electors, and it 
must vote by States, the majority of representatives from 


THE PRESIDENT; HIS ELECTION 173 

each State casting one vote for their State, and the repre¬ 
sentatives of two-thirds of the States must take part in the 
election. The successful candidate must receive a major¬ 
ity of the votes of all the States. When the Senate is 
obliged to elect a Vice President, it must choose from the 



The White House 


two highest on the list of the persons voted for by the elec¬ 
tors. 

Inauguration.—On the fourth of March, the newly 
elected President and Vice President begin their duties. 
In the presence of a vast throng of citizens the Chief Jus¬ 
tice of the United States administers to the President¬ 
elect the following oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) 
that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the 
United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, 











174 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” 
The President then delivers his inaugural address, from 
the eastern steps of the Capitol, outlining his policy and 
stating his ideas upon public questions. After this inaugu¬ 
ration he is driven to the executive mansion, generally 
known as the “ White House,” where he resides during his 
term of office, and where you may some day see him and 
shake hands with him. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Examine Article II of the Constitution, and fill the blanks 
properly: 

Both President and Vice President hold their position for-years. 

Nc person may be President who was not bom in the-, and who is 

not-years of age at the time of his-, and who has not been a 

resident within the-for-years. If a President should be re¬ 
moved from his office or should-or-or be-to discharge 

the powers and duties of his-, the position of-shall be filled by 

the-. 

2. Ought the President to be elected directly by the people? 

3. How many Presidents have been elected a second time? What 
are the objections to electing a President for a third term? 

4. How many votes were cast for presidential electors at the last 
election? 

5. Is it possible for a man to be elected President without receiving 
a majority of the votes of the people? 

6. What are the qualifications for the office of Vice President? 


XXXI. THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET 


“ As the citizen may not elect what laws he will obey, neither may 
the Executive elect which he will enforce .”—Benjamin Harrison. 

The Powers and Duties of the President.—The Presi¬ 
dent does for the United States what a Governor does for 
one of the States—he takes care that the laws are faith¬ 
fully executed. His powers and duties are stated in the 
second and third sections of Article II of the Constitution. 

He is commander in chief of all the troops in the serv¬ 
ice of the United States, although in times of war he may 
not appear personally upon the field of battle. 

He may pardon criminals convicted for offenses com¬ 
mitted against the United States. 

He may make a treaty with a foreign country, pro¬ 
vided two-thirds of the members of the Senate vote for 
it. A treaty is an agreement between two nations to do 
or to refrain from doing certain things. It may be to make 
war upon a third nation, or to maintain peace, or to regu¬ 
late commerce or the carrying of mails, or for any other pur¬ 
pose. It is through treaties that the different nations of 
the world attempt to secure the good will of one another, 
and the responsibility of making treaties rests with the 
President and the Senate. 

At the beginning of a session of Congress the President 
sends to that body, or delivers in person, a message , in 
175 


176 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


which he calls attention to the needs of the country 
and suggests such legislation as seems necessary. Con¬ 
gress is not obliged to follow his suggestions any more 
than the Legislature of a State is obliged to follow the 
suggestions contained in a message from the Governor. 

When Congress is not in session and it seems necessary 
that certain laws should be passed as quickly as possible, 
the President may call an extra session, just as the Gov¬ 
ernor of a State may call an extra session of the Legislature. 

The Great Executive Departments.—Upon the shoul¬ 
ders of the President rests the responsibility of the manage¬ 
ment of the entire business of the National Government. 
He is responsible for the management of foreign affairs, 
which includes the making of treaties, the appointing 
of ministers and consuls to serve in foreign countries 
and instructing them in their duties, the reception of 
foreign ministers in Washington, the giving of passports 
to those who wish to travel abroad, the protection of 
American citizens in other lands, and all other bus¬ 
iness that arises between our government and other gov¬ 
ernments. He is responsible for the management of the 
army with its officers and troops and forts and equipment 
and military schools; for the management of the navy 
with its fleets and forts and training schools; for the man¬ 
agement of much business conducted by United States 
attorneys in the national courts; for the collection of taxes, 
the expenditure of money appropriated by Congress, and 
the management of the public debt; for the management 
of the vast business of the post office with its post office 


THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET 


177 


buildings and postmasters, letter carriers, and clerks; for 
the management of the Indians, the sale of public lands, 
the payment of pensions, the granting of patents; for 
much work done by the government in aid of scientific 
farming; for the taking of the census, the regulation of 
commerce, the work of government fish hatcheries, and 
many other things. 

Of course, the President cannot superintend all this 
business in person. Like the executive of any other large 
government, like the Governor of a State or the Mayor of a 
city, he must have a body of able assistants. This busi¬ 
ness of the National Government is divided into ten de¬ 
partments, and at the head of each department the Presi¬ 
dent places a man who he thinks is competent to manage 
its affairs. The names of the departments, with the titles 
of the head officers, are: 

(1) The Department of State, under the management of 
the Secretary of State, who is at the head of foreign af¬ 
fairs. 

(2) The Department of War, under the management of 
the Secretary of War. 

(3) The Department of the Navy, under the management 
of the Secretary of the Navy. 

(4) The Department of Justice, under the management 
of the Attorney-General. 

(5) The Department of the Treasury, under the manage¬ 
ment of the Secretary of the Treasury. 

(6) The Post Office Department, under the management 
of the Postmaster-General. 

F. Civil Govt.—12 


178 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


(7) The Department of the Interior , under the manage¬ 
ment of the Secretary of the Interior. 

(8) The Department of Agriculture, under the manage¬ 
ment of the Secretary of Agriculture. 

(9) The Department of Commerce , under the manage¬ 
ment of the Secretary of Commerce. 

(10) The Department of Labor , under the management of 
the Secretary of Labor. 

Cabinet Meetings.—The officers who serve as the heads 
of the great departments meet at the White House once or 
twice a week to consult with the President and to advise 



A Cabinet Meeting 


with him in respect to public affairs. This coming to¬ 
gether of the heads of the departments is known as a Cabi¬ 
net Meeting. Cabinet meetings are not provided for in 
the Constitution. They are held simply for the conven¬ 
ience of the President, who desires, of course, to consult 
with his secretaries from time to time and to get advice 












THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET 


179 


from them. No record is kept of the cabinet meetings, 
and the public does not know what takes place at them. 
The cabinet may take a vote upon a question that is be¬ 
fore it, but the President is not bound to act according to 
the result of the vote. The business of the cabinet is to 
discuss and advise; the business of the President is to decide 
and act. 

The National Civil Service; the Civil Service Com¬ 
mission. — The work of the National Government requires 
the services of about 560,000 persons, not counting the soldiers 
in the army or the sailors in the navy. About 70,000 of 
these officers and employees reside in the city of Washing¬ 
ton. The others are scattered over the country, serving 
principally as postmasters, letter-carriers, clerks, custom¬ 
house employees, inspectors. We are apt to think of Wash¬ 
ington as the place where nearly all the business of the Na¬ 
tional Government is transacted, but it should be remem¬ 
bered that for every person whom the National Government 
employs in Washington it employs about seven elsewhere. 

How, do these 560,000 servants of the National Govern¬ 
ment receive their positions? They receive them in two 
ways: they are either appointed directly by the President 
or they are appointed directly by the heads of the depart¬ 
ments. Those appointed by the President — more than 
10,000 in number — must be confirmed by the Senate. 
The presidential appointees are the leading men of the 
government, the heads of the departments and their chief 
assistants, the heads of bureaus and of divisions, the post¬ 
masters of the larger places, the chief customhouse offi- 


180 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


cials and collectors of internal revenue. All the vast army 
of officers and employees not appointed directly by the 
President are appointed by the heads of the departments. 

In order to help in the work of securing proper persons 
for the departments a Civil Service Commission has 
been established. It is the duty of this body to ex¬ 
amine those who wish employment under the government 
and to report on the fitness of the applicants. The names 
of the persons who pass the examinations held by the Com¬ 
mission are sent to the heads of the departments, and the 
persons who get the highest marks are the first to be ap¬ 
pointed. Those who pass these civil service examinations 
and receive appointments are allowed to hold their places 
so long as they behave themselves and do their work well. 
Any person, however, in the executive civil service of the 
National Government, whether he be high or low, may be 
removed from his position at any time by the President, 
and may be removed for any reason or for no reason. 

Salaries. —-The salaries of the principal officers of the 
National Government are as follows: 


President.$75,000 

Vice President.12,000 

Members of the Cabinet. 12,000 

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. 15 000 

Associate Justices of the Supreme Court.14,500 

Judges of Circuit Courts. 8 500 

Judges of District Courts.. 7 500 

Representatives. 7 5 QQ 

Senators . 7,500 

Foreign Ministers and Ambassadors .... 10,000 to 17,500 

Heads of Bureaus and Divisions. 3,000 to 6,000 













THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET 


181 


QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Name the members of our President’s cabinet. 

2. What is meant by the words “To the victors belong the spoils”? 

3. How would you proceed if you wished to secure a position as a 
clerk in a post office? (Write to the United States Civil Service Com¬ 
mission, Washington, D. C., for a booklet giving information about 
admission to the national civil service.) 

4. Ought employees of the civil service to receive pensions in their 
old age? 

5. Name all the officers and employees of the national civil service 
whom you personally know. 


XXXII. THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DEPART¬ 
MENTS 


“Cultivate peace and harmony with all.”— Washington. 

Introduction.—We may now begin to study the work¬ 
ings of the great executive departments of our National 
Government. The business of these departments extends 
over the whole of the United States. Indeed the business 
of some of them extends over the entire world. The cen¬ 
tral offices, however, of all the departments are located 
at our national capital, and it is in these great govern¬ 
ment workshops, the department buildings at Washing¬ 
ton, that we can best study the subject that is now be¬ 
fore us. 

The Department of State.—Of all the large and mag¬ 
nificent office buildings in Washington the largest and 
most magnificent is the State, War, and Navy Building 
located about a stone's throw west of the White House.- 
This building might well be called the Peace and War 
Building, for beneath its roof are done both the things 
that keep us on terms of peace and friendship with foreign 
nations and the things that enable us to wage war on land 
and on sea. In this huge structure are the offices of the 
Department of State, the Department of War, and the 
Department of the Navy. 

The Department of State is the department of foreign 
182 


THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS 


183 



affairs. The United States must transact a great deal of 
business with the other countries of the world, and the 
management of this business is in the hands of the Secre¬ 
tary of State. Every important nation sends to Washing¬ 
ton an ambassador or minister whose duty is to represent 
his home country and to defend its interests in the United 
States. The Secretary of State assists the President in 
receiving these ambassadors and ministers upon their 
arrival in Washington, and does what he can to make their 


State, War, and Navy Building 

stay in the city pleasant and agreeable. A foreign minis¬ 
ter is a very important personage and he must be treated 
with great honor and distinction. The land on which he 
lives is regarded as a little patch of sacred territory upon 
which no one must enter against the wishes of the minis¬ 
ter. The person of a foreign minister is also regarded as 






184 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


sacred, and so are the persons of the members of his family 
and of his secretaries and servants. A secretary of a 
foreign ambassador was arrested in a New England town 
for running an automobile too fast, and was fined. The 
State Department took the matter up and caused the 
money to be given back, and the judge who imposed the 
fine was reprimanded. 

Besides attending to the business that is brought up by 
the foreign ambassadors and ministers residing in Wash¬ 
ington, the State Department has charge of the work car¬ 
ried on by our own ambassadors and ministers in other 
countries. In almost every country of the world the Uni¬ 
ted States has either an ambassador or a minister. The 
ambassador is the higher officer in rank and is supposed 
to be the personal representative of the President himself. 
An ambassador and a minister have practically the same 
duty, and that is to uphold and defend the interests of 
the United States and its citizens in the countries to 
which they are sent. 

The State Department also has charge of the consular 
service of the United States. A consul is a business agent 
sent by the government to a foreign seaport or an inland 
city to look after the commercial interests of the home 
country. The consul also attends to many affairs of a 
private nature. He certifies to marriages, births, and 
deaths among his countrymen in his consular district; he 
looks after the property of deceased persons when there is 
nobody else at hand to do this; sometimes he issues pass¬ 
ports. Very often in the hour of need the American citi- 


THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS 185 


zen ill a foreign land finds in the American consul a 
real friend. 

The Department of War has charge of the land forces 
of the United States, including the regular or standing 
army, the army that is always ready for fighting. A 
law passed in 1916 reorganized the regular army and 
provided for a total peace footing of about 200,000 men. 
The term of service consists of three years of active 
duty and four years in reserve. The National Guard, 
which is the organized militia of the several States, is 
also at the service of the National Government. The 
law of 1916 increased it to about 425,000 men. For 
the war with Germany the army was greatly enlarged 
by voluntary enlistments and by drafts, in which men of 
certain classes, drawn by lot, were compelled to enlist. 

The President is the commander in chief of the army, 
but the actual management of military affairs falls into the 
hands of the Secretary of War. This officer is assisted in 
the performance of his duties by the General Staff and by 
the heads of the several bureaus of the War Department. 
The General Staff is a body of trained officers whose duty 
is to prepare plans for the conduct of military operations. 
Through the Chief of Staff the Secretary of War exer-^ 
cises a direct control over the troops. One great bureau 
of the department is that of the Quartermaster Corps, 
which attends to the clothing and to the transporta¬ 
tion of the troops, gives them their pay, and supplies 
them with their rations. The office of the Surgeon- 
General cares for the sick and wounded and has charge 


186 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


of the army hospitals. The Judge-Advocate-General is the 
head of the bureau of military justice. Officers and sol¬ 
diers frequently get into trouble and are accused of wrong¬ 
doing and when this happens they are not tried by a jury 
as other citizens are, but by a military court known as a 
court-martial. The Judge-Advocate-General has a general 
supervision over courts-martial. The Chief of Ordnance 
has charge of the bureau that purchases or manufactures the 
guns, swords, cannon, and ammunition used by the army. 

The War Department has charge of the fortifications by 
which the great cities along the sea coast are defended. It 
also has control of the great Military Academy at West 
Point where young men receive thorough training in the 
arts of war. The War Department has also established 
at Washington an Army War College for advanced students. 

The Department of the Navy has charge of the forces 
that defend us on the seas. The President is commander 
in chief of the navy as he is commander in chief of the 
army, but the Secretary of the Navy is the real manager 
of naval affairs. The business of the Navy Department 
is distributed to several bureaus, all of which work toward 
the same end: the placing on the seas of well-built, well- 
equipped, and fully-manned fighting ships. The Bureau 
of Construction and Repair attends to the designing and 
building of the ships of the navy. The Bureau of Yards 
and Docks has charge of the yards where ships for the 
navy are built. The Bureau of Navigation takes care that 
the ships of the navy are supplied with properly trained 
officers and sailors. The Naval Academy at Annapolis— 


THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS 


187 


the best equipped school of its kind in the world—is 
under the direction of this bureau. The Bureau of Ord¬ 
nance provides the ships with the instruments of warfare. 

For a long time the United States did not care to have 
a powerful navy, but about 1885 we began to improve 
our navy, adding to the number of fighting vessels and 
providing for the training of a large number of naval offi¬ 
cers and seamen. This policy of increasing our naval 
forces has been followed so faithfully that we now have 
one of the most powerful navies in the world. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Who first filled the office of Secretary of State? Of Secretary ol 
War? Of Secretary of the Navy? 

2. Name four great generals of American history. Name three 
great naval heroes of American history. 

3. What country has the strongest navy? What reason can you 
give in favor of supporting a strong navy? What reasons can you 
give against supporting a strong navy? 

4. What does it cost to support the army and navy of the United 
States? 

5. Name the countries of the world that have large standing armies. 
Are those countries in less danger than are those that have small 
standing armies? 

6. If you see any good things connected with warfare name those 
things. Name the evils connected with warfare. 


XXXIII. THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DEPART- 

MENTS (i Continued ) 


The Department of Justice. —Just across the street 
from the State, War, and Navy Building is the central 
office of the Department of Justice, the law department 
of the National Government. The chief lawyer of this de¬ 
partment is the Attorney-General of the United States, 
who renders the same kind of service for the National 
Government that the Attorney-General of the State (p. 141) 
renders for the State government and that the prosecuting 
attorney (p. 88) renders for the county. When there are 
offenses against the laws of the United States, such as 
the counterfeiting of money or the robbing of mails, it is 
the duty of the Department of Justice to prosecute the 
offenders in the national courts. When the National Gov¬ 
ernment needs a lawyer to defend it in the courts, the 
Attorney-General or one of his assistants acts as that 
lawyer. When the President, or a member of the cabinet, 
needs the advice of a lawyer he calls upon the Attorney- 
General to give that advice. The Department of Justice 
also superintends the district attorneys, clerks, and mar¬ 
shals of the national courts. In the performance of his 
duties the Attorney-General is assisted by a solicitor- 
general and by many assistant attorneys. 

The Department of the Treasury.—About a stone’s 
throw east of the White House is the Treasury Building, 
188 


THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS 189 


the great central workshop of the Treasury Department. 
Visitors to Washington are always eager to go through 
the Treasury Building, for in it they can see the vaults in 
which are deposited great sums of gold and silver coin, 
and can see old and worn out money destroyed and new, 
freshly printed money stamped, counted, and prepared for 
shipment to all parts of the country. 

The operations of the Treasury Department are so vast 



Treasury Building 


that to give a full account of them would require a large 
volume. At the head of this department is the Secretary 
of the Treasury, who is assisted in his labors by three as¬ 
sistant secretaries and by the heads of numerous bureaus 
and divisions. Among the many services of the depart¬ 
ment the following deserve special notice: 












190 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


(1) The Collection of the National Taxes. —It is the task 
of the Treasury Department to collect the great sum of 
money that is required to support the National Govern¬ 
ment. The national taxes are the customs duties on goods 
brought from foreign countries, excises (taxes) on cer¬ 
tain articles of home manufacture, income tax, and a 
tax on inheritances. Duties are collected principally on 
sugar, tobacco, wool, woolen goods, cotton goods, silk 
goods, iron and steel goods. Both duties and excises 
(internal taxes) are collected on tobacco, cigars, ciga¬ 
rettes, oleomargarine, playing cards, and various other 
articles. 

For the collection of the customs tax the Treasury De¬ 
partment places officials, known as collectors of customs, 
at all points where foreign goods are brought into the 
country. There are altogether about 130 such places, 
known as ports of entry. The leading ports of entry—so 
far as the amount of customs collected is concerned—are 
New York, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Balti¬ 
more, New Orleans, Chicago, and Detroit. By far the 
most important port is New York, where more than half 
of all the customs are collected. 

For the collection of the excises the Department has 
officers known as collectors of internal revenue. These 
officers visit the cigar and tobacco manufactories, etc., and 
collect taxes on the articles before they are sold. They 
also collect the income and inheritance taxes. 

(2) The Safe Keeping of the National Revenue.— The 
money collected as national taxes is placed in the 


THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS 191 


keeping of the Treasurer of the United States, an officer of 
the Treasury Department. A large amount of the govern¬ 
ment’s money is always found in the vaults of the Treasury. 
In twelve cities also (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Rich¬ 
mond, Atlanta, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas 
City, St. Louis, Dallas, and San Francisco) large sums of 
public money are kept in the Federal Reserve Banks. These 
banks are under the control of the Federal Reserve Board 
consisting of the Secretary of the Treasury and six other 
persons appointed by the President. 

(3) The Bookkeeping Service of the National Govern¬ 
ment .—The great task of keeping the accounts of the Na¬ 
tional Government is performed by officers of the Treasury 
Department. Chief among these are the Register of the 
Treasury, Auditors of the Treasury, and the Comptroller 
of the Treasury. The Register of the Treasury signs all 
United States bonds, and prepares lists of persons who 
are the holders of registered bonds and who are en¬ 
titled to receive interest on bonds. The Auditors of the 
Treasury, six in number, examine and settle all the claims 
and accounts of the various departments. The Comptrol¬ 
ler prescribes the manner in which the public accounts 
shall be kept and when complaints are made he sits in 
judgment on the work of the Auditors and approves or 
disapproves of their decisions. 

(4) The Manufacture of Money —All the money in use 
is manufactured under the direction of the Treasury De¬ 
partment. The paper money is all printed in Washing¬ 
ton at the great Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where 


192 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


1000 skilled workmen and artists are constantly em¬ 
ployed printing and counting national currency. For 
the manufacture of gold and silver and other metallic 
coins the department has mints located at Philadelphia, 
New Orleans, Denver, and San Francisco. 

(5) The Supervision of National Banks. —The national 
banks of the country, more than 8000 in number, are super¬ 
vised by an officer of the department known as the Comp¬ 
troller of the Currency. No national bank can begin busi¬ 
ness until its plans have been submitted to the Comptroller 
and approved by him, and every bank must send to him 
at stated times reports showing the condition of its affairs. 
I (6) The Supervision of the War Risk Insurance Bureau. 
— This bureau attends to the insurance of soldiers and 
sailors who were enlisted in the war against Germany. 

(7) Miscellaneous Services. —The Treasury Depart¬ 
ment performs several services that are not closely 
connected with its proper work. It has charge of the 
Public Health Service , which furnishes medical aid and 
hospital service to certain classes of seamen and which 
does what it can to prevent the spread of contagious 
diseases from State to State. It has charge of the Coast 
Guard , which keeps along our seacoast a force of men 
who are ready night and day to save the lives of people 
on board vessels in distress. It also employs a Super¬ 
vising Architect , who selects the location and prepares 
the plans for the public buildings of the National Gov¬ 
ernment, its customhouses, its post offices, its hospitals. 

The Post Office Department.—A walk of three minutes 


THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS 193 

from the Treasury Building, passing along the far-famed 
Pennsylvania Avenue, brings one to the Post Office Build¬ 
ing. This is the central office of the Post Office Depart¬ 
ment, which collects, carries, and delivers letters and par¬ 
cels and manages the affairs of the postal savings bank. 
About 300,000 persons—postmasters, clerks, and letter 
carriers—are employed by the Post Office Department. 

At the head of this department is the Postmaster- 
General, who is assisted in his duties by four assistant 
postmasters-general. The first assistant postmaster-gen¬ 
eral attends to postmasters' appointments, 1 salaries, and 
the delivery of mail in cities. The second assistant at¬ 
tends to the carrying of the mails, whether on railroads, 
steamships, or otherwise. The third assistant supervises 
the manufacture of stamps and attends to matters con¬ 
nected with money orders and registered mails. The 
fourth assistant has charge of the rural free delivery service 
and of dead letters. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Which of the executive departments of the National Govern¬ 
ment comes closest to the citizen in his daily life? 

2. What services does the Post Office Department render besides 
the carrying of the mails? Explain the rates charged for different classes 
of mail, including the rates of the parcel post. 

3. Explain what is meant by “Protection”; by “Free Trade.” 

4. Describe the several kinds of money in use. 

5. Try to get a friend who understands the subject to come before 
your class and explain the workings of national banks. 

1 He does not, however, actually appoint postmasters; only the President 
or the Postmaster-General can make appointments. 


F. Civil Govt.—13 


XXXTV. THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DEPART¬ 
MENTS ( Continued ) 


The Department of the Interior employs more per¬ 
sons in Washington than any other department except 
the Treasury Department. Its central offices are located 
in several great buildings which stand at convenient dis¬ 
tances from one another. 

The Secretary of the Interior has his office in a building 
known as the Patent Office. In the Patent Office also is 
the office of the Commissioner of Patents who has charge 
of the granting of patents (p. 164) to the thousands of in¬ 
ventors who every year come forward with something new. 

Just across the street from the Patent Office is the fine 
building known as the Land Office. In this building are 
located two of the most important bureaus of the Interior 
Department, the General Land Office and the Office of In¬ 
dian Affairs. The Land Office has charge of the public 
lands owned by the United States. These lands, if we in¬ 
clude those owned in Alaska, have a combined area of 
nearly a million and a half square miles, an area equal to 
that of six such States as Texas. The National Govern¬ 
ment is all the time selling its public lands to private in¬ 
dividuals at very low prices, and it is through the Land 
Office that these lands are bought and that the titles to 
them are secured. The Indian Office deals with the In¬ 
dians of the United States. There are scattered over the 

194 


THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS 


195 


country about 270,000 red men living on about 160 In¬ 
dian reservations which have a total area of more than 
100,000 square miles. Most of these Indians live in tribes, 
and all Indian tribes are under the control and guardian¬ 
ship of the United States. The National Government as 
the guardian and protector of the Indians renders them 
many services: it protects them against injustice at the 
hands of the white man; it gives them certain food supplies; 



Pension Office 


it supports schools among them. It does these things 
through the agency of the Indian Office. 

Two squares from the Patent Office is the massive Pen¬ 
sion Office. Here under the direction of the Commissioner 
of Pensions , an officer of the Interior Department, nearly 
1000 persons are employed in examining the claims for 
pensions and in awarding pensions to those who have 







196 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


fought in our wars. Through the services of this office pen¬ 
sions are distributed to about 500,000 old soldiers and old 
soldiers’ widows. The number of pensioners, however, is 
growing smaller. 

In the Department of the Interior there are also: a Com¬ 
missioner of Education, who collects facts bearing upon 
the subject of education; a Director of the Geological Sur¬ 
vey, who investigates the mineral resources and mineral 
products of the public lands; a Director of the Reclamation 
Service, who directs the great work of reclaiming arid lands 
by irrigation; and a Director of the Bureau of Mines, who 
investigates methods of providing for the safety of miners. 

The Department of Agriculture, under the direction 
of the Secretary of Agriculture, collects and distributes 
among the people useful information on the subject of 
agriculture. For example: a certain farming community 
of one of the States was being overrun by mice; millions 
of the little pests had suddenly appeared and were doing 
the crops great harm. The Department of Agriculture 
soon had its men on the spot trying experiments as to the 
best method of getting rid of the mice. When the agents 
of the department had learned how the mice could be most 
easily destroyed they published an account of their work 
and this account was sent to the farmers of the mouse- 
ridden district. The department, you observe, did not 
undertake to kill the mice for the farmers, but it did 
undertake to furnish them with information as to how 
they might best rid their fields of the mice. This is an 
illustration of the hundreds of ways in which the depart- 


THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS 


197 


ment of Agriculture helps farmers by sending out informa¬ 
tion. 

A most important service of the department is that per¬ 
formed by the Weather Bureau. This bureau studies the 
winds and the clouds and makes forecasts of the weather. 
Observations of weather conditions are made in more than 
3000 places located in all parts of the United States, and 
forecasts are made in several of the principal cities. The 
forecasts are sent hither and thither by mail, by telephone, 
and by telegraph, to different points, so that the people 
may be warned of coming changes in the weather. 

The Bureau of Animal Industry is a most important 
bureau of the department. It investigates the diseases of 
cattle and horses and swine and gives information to 
farmers as to how these diseases may be prevented. It also 
inspects such animals, meats, and meat-food products as are 
intended for shipment from one State to another. 

Other bureaus of the Department of Agriculture are: 
the Bureau of Entomology, which gathers and distributes 
information regarding insects which are harmful to crops 
and trees; the Bureau of Biological Survey, which makes a 
study of birds with the view of learning what birds are the 
farmers friends and what birds are his enemies; the Bureau 
of Plant Industry, which studies plant life, and distributes 
seeds to farmers. 

The Department of Commerce promotes the foreign 
and domestic commerce, the mining, manufacturing, ship¬ 
ping, and fishing industries, and transportation facilities. 
The prominent bureaus are: the Bureau of the Census, which 


198 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


takes a census of all the people every ten years; the Bureau 
of Fisheries, which propagates useful food fishes, and 
lobsters, oysters, and other shellfish. 

The Department of Labor promotes the welfare of wage 
earners, improves working conditions, and advances the 
opportunities for profitable employment. An important 
bureau is the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reports on 
the conditions of labor, and on the products of labor and 
their distribution; another is the Children’s Bureau, which 
investigates all matters pertaining to the welfare of children, 
giving special attention to such questions as infant mortality, 
juvenile courts, orphanage, and diseases of children. 

Executive Work outside the Departments. —Much 
of the work of the National Government has not been ' 
brought under the supervision of any of the ten great 
departments. The Federal Trade Commission, which 
consists of five members appointed by the President, en¬ 
forces laws to prevent business concerns (other than rail¬ 
roads) from using unfair methods when competing with 
one another. The Interstate Commerce Commission , 
composed of eleven members appointed by the Presi¬ 
dent, exercises a certain control over railroads carrying 
freight and passengers from one State to another. It 
requires that the railroads in their charges for carrying 
passengers and freight shall not charge one person 
more for a given service than is charged another per¬ 
son for the same service. The commission also, either 
of its own accord or upon complaint, may do away 
with a passenger or freight rate which it regards as 


THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS 199 


unjust or unreasonable and may fix a new rate which it 
regards as just and reasonable. The Railroad Labor Board, 
consisting of nine members appointed by the President, was 
created to pass upon working conditions, and upon the wages 
and salaries of railroad workers. The Shipping Board is 
composed of five commissioners appointed by the President. 
The chief purpose of this board is to create a merchant 
marine to meet the needs of our trade upon the seas. It 
may purchase or build vessels suitable for this trade and 
may either operate such vessels itself or lease them to be 
operated by others. 

The Bureau of the Budget is under the immediate direction 
of the President, who appoints the Director of the Bureau. 
This bureau prepares each year a statement of the expenses 
and income of the government and makes estimates of its 
needs. 

Outside of any department also are: The Civil Service 
Commission, consisting of three members whose duties 
have been described (p. 180); the great Government Print¬ 
ing Office, where under the direction of the Public Printer 
nearly 5000 persons are constantly employed in printing 
and binding countless documents for the National Govern¬ 
ment; the Smithsonian Institution, which carries on scientific 
experiments, and which has charge of the National Museum 
and the Zoological Gardens; the Veterans’ Bureau, which 
cares for the education and the interests of the soldiers who 
fought in the World War. 

Last, but not least, the Library of Congress is outside 
the control of any department. This library at first 


200 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 



was intended simply for the personal use of members 
of Congress, but it has become a national institution 

and its 3,000,000 
volumes are at the 
service of the peo¬ 
ple of the United 
States. The col¬ 
lection has been 
housed in a build¬ 
ing of surpassing 
beauty, and schol¬ 
ars and readers 
from all parts of 

the country can 
An Alcove in the Congressional Library found in its 

alcoves availing themselves of its precious treasures. 


QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Of the ten executive departments of the National Government 
which renders the most important service? Which stands second in 
the importance of the service it renders? Which stands third? Which 
fourth? 

2. To what department or bureau would you take each of the follow¬ 
ing matters: 

(а) A claim for a pension. 

(б) A claim for a tract of public land. 

(c) An application for a patent. 

( d ) An application for information concerning admission to the Naval 

Academy. 

(e) A request for information regarding the best method of curing a 

disease in cattle. 

(/) A complaint in respect to a freight rate. 















XXXV. TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES 

Introduction.—The National Government has always 
had under its control large areas of territory that have 
been governed entirely according to the wishes of Con¬ 
gress. At the beginning of our national history the great 
Northwest Territory, out of which have been carved Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and a part of Minne¬ 
sota, was governed by Congress. The great region known 
as Louisiana, which was purchased from France in 1803 
and which gave to the Union a dozen States, was at first 
governed as a territory dependent upon Congress. In 
fact, of the thirty-five admitted States all but six— 
Vermont, Kentucky, Maine, Texas, California, and West 
Virginia—were governed by Congress as Territories before 
they came into the Union as States. 

Hawaii. —Congress has provided for each of the Terri¬ 
tories a government suitable to its needs. Hawaii has a 
Governor appointed by the President of the United States 
for a term of four years; a secretary also appointed by the 
President; an elective Legislature elected by the people, 
and resembling that of a State Legislature; a system of 
local government resembling that found in the States; 
and a number of territorial judges appointed by the 
President. It sends to the House of Representatives at 
Washington a delegate who has a right to speak but who 
201 


202 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


has not the right to vote. Although the Legislature of 
Hawaii is elected by the people, yet any bill passed by the 
Legislature may be vetoed by the Governor, who is not 
elected by the people; and to overrule his veto a two-thirds 
vote of each house of the Legislature is necessary. In 
respect to laws that have already been enacted Congress 
has complete power; it can at any time do away with 
any law that the Legislature has passed. In this way 
the National Government keeps a firm hand upon this 
Territory. 

Alaska.—The vast region of Alaska came to us in 1867 
by purchase from Russia. It is governed by Congress 
somewhat in the way that Hawaii is. It has a Governor, 
a secretary, and judges who are all appointed by the 
President. It has a Legislature, but the powers of this 
body are limited in certain respects by Congress. It has 
a delegate in the House of Representatives. 

Our Island Possessions.—Through the war with Spain 
in 1898 the United States gained possession of Porto Rico 
and the Philippine Islands. The duty of governing these 
islands rests upon Congress. 

For Porto Rico Congress has provided a Governor, 
an attorney-general, and a commissioner of education, 
all to be appointed by the President. A treasurer, a 
commissioner of the interior, a commissioner of agri¬ 
culture and labor, and a commissioner of health are 
appointed by the Governor. The Legislature of Porto 
Rico consists of two houses, a senate and a house of 
representatives. Both the senators and the represent- 


TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES 


203 


atives are elected by the qualified voters, and serve for 
a term of four years. Any bill passed by the Legis¬ 
lature may be vetoed by the Governor, but the veto 
may be overruled by a two-thirds vote of both houses. 
If after his veto has been overruled the Governor still 
disapproves of a bill, he must send it to the President 
for his final approval or rejection. All laws enacted 
by the Legislature must be reported to Congress, and 
if Congress desires to do so it may annul any law. The 
principal judges of the island are appointed by the 
President. Porto Rico sends to Washington a resi¬ 
dent commissioner, who by the grace of the House of 
Representatives is permitted to speak in that body. 

For the government of the Philippine Islands Con¬ 
gress has provided a Governor General, a vice-governor, 
and an auditor to be appointed by the President. The 
other executive officers are appointed by the Governor 
General. The Philippine Legislature closely resembles 
the Legislature of Porto Rico, except that senators 
in the Philippines hold office for six years and rep¬ 
resentatives for three years. The Philippine Islands 
send two commissioners to Washington. 

The inhabitants of Porto Rico are citizens of the 
United States. The Filipinos are not, and do not 
enjoy all the rights and privileges of American citizen¬ 
ship. It is the policy of the National Government, 
however, to treat these people fairly, and in fact 
they enjoy most of the civil rights that Americans 
enjoy. 


204 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


The District of Columbia.—Under the Articles of Con¬ 
federation Congress had no fixed home and at times it 
was treated badly in the places in which it held its ses¬ 
sions. It will be remembered that in Philadelphia Con¬ 
gress was once attacked by a crowd of drunken soldiers. 
The framers of the Constitution provided that the Na¬ 
tional Government should have a district (not exceeding 
ten miles square) for its permanent home and that in this 
district Congress should have complete control. In 1790 
a tract of land on the Potomac River was chosen as the 
site for the new seat of government and was named the 
District of Columbia. 

Congress has governed the District of Columbia now 
in one way, now in another. At present the District is 
governed by a Board of Commissioners appointed by the 
President. These Commissioners act as an executive body 
to do the will of Congress, which makes the laws of the 
District. Judges of the courts of the District are appointed 
by the President. Since the District of Columbia is prac¬ 
tically the city of Washington the District government 
is a city government with the usual departments of serv¬ 
ice that must be rendered by a city (p. 113). 

In the management of the affairs of their city the people 
of Washington have no responsibility whatever and no 
power whatever. The District of Columbia has no dele¬ 
gate in Congress, or commissioner, or representative of 
any kind. Of all the dependencies of the United States 
the District is the only one in which there is no provision 
whatever for the expression of the popular will. The in- 


TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES 


205 


habitants, however, are of course citizens of the United 
States. 


QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Prepare a table showing the population and area of each of the 
Territories and dependencies and give the total. 

2. Of our Territories and dependencies name those that are likely 
to become States. 

3. If you lived in the city of Washington do you think you would 
like the way it is governed? 

4. Give an account of the government of Guam; of Samoa. 

5. Write a composition on the city of Washington, describing its 
location, its streets, its buildings, and its attractions. 



The Municipal Building, Washington, D.C. 












XXXVI. THE NATIONAL COURTS 


“The Supreme Court is the living voice of the Constitution, that is, 
of the will of the people expressed in the fundamental law they have 
enacted. It is the conscience of the people who have resolved to re¬ 
strain themselves from hasty or unjust action by placing their repre¬ 
sentatives under the restriction of a permanent law.”— James Bryce. 

The Kind of Cases Tried in the National Courts. —The 

third article of the Constitution describes the powers and 
the nature of the judicial department of the National Gov¬ 
ernment. 

The courts of a State try those cases that arise under 
the laws and constitution of the State, while the courts 
of the National Government try those cases that arise under 
the Constitution of the United States, and the laws passed 
by Congress. A man charged with the crime of burglary 
would be tried in one of the courts of the State in which 
the crime was committed; for the laws against burglary 
are passed by the Legislatures of the States. A man charged 
with counterfeiting money would be tried in one of the 
national courts; for the laws against counterfeiting are 
passed by Congress. A person charged with breaking a 
street lamp would be tried in a State court, for his offense 
concerns a State; but a person charged with robbing a 
letter box attached to a lamp-post, would be tried in a 
court of the United States, for his offense concerns the 
National Government. 

Again, the national courts may try those cases that arise 
206 


THE NATIONAL COURTS 


207 


between citizens of different States, if either party to the 
case so desires. Also when a dispute arises between two 
States, it is settled, not in a State court, but in the national 
court. If such a case were left to the courts of one of the 
States to be decided, the other State, if the decision went 
against it, would in all probability be dissatisfied. 

Still another class of cases tried in the national courts 
consists of those in which one of the parties is a foreigner. 
If a foreign country has a grievance against a citizen or 
against one of the States it may try its case in the courts of 
the United States, for the nation and not the State is re¬ 
sponsible to foreign governments. Likewise, if a citizen 
or a State has a grievance against a citizen of another 
country, the suit may be brought in a national court. In 
the case of ambassadors and their families and attendants, 
when any trouble arises, the matter must be taken directly 
to the Supreme Court of the United States. Under this 
rule, if a servant of an ambassador should steal a pound of 
sugar or should be charged with disorderly conduct, his 
case would have to be tried before the highest court of the 
United States. This great respect is shown to foreign 
ministers in order to avoid giving offense to the govern* 
ments which they represent. 

The Three Grades of National Courts. — For the trial 

of such cases as have just been mentioned, the government 
of the United States supports a system of courts somewhat 
similar to those supported by a State. The judges of all 
these courts are appointed by the President and they all 
hold their office for life. 


208 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


The lowest court of the system is the (1) District 
Court ,* which is presided over by a District Judge. 
In every State there is at least one District Court. 
The larger and more populous States have two or more 
District Courts; all together there are nearly 120 District 
Judges in the United States. These lowest courts try 
all crimes committed against the United States, and 
they try such civil cases as may properly be tried in 
national courts. In the District Court are tried patent 
and copyright cases, counterfeit cases, cases arising under 
the postal laws, and other classes of cases arising under 
laws passed by Congress. When a case has been tried 
in the District Court and either of the parties to the case 
is not satisfied with the result, it may be taken, that is, 
appealed, either to the Supreme Court of the United States, 
or to the Circuit Court of Appeals, a court established in 
1891 to do part of the heavy work of the Supreme Court. 
An appealed case is carried to the Supreme Court (a) when 
it involves a question of jurisdiction, that is, a question 
as to what court the case ought to be tried in; ( b ) when it 
involves the construction of the Constitution of the United 
States; (c) when it involves a question of the constitution¬ 
ality of a law, that is, whether the law, State or national, 
agrees with the Constitution of the United States; ( d ) when 
it is a case of conviction for some great crime; ( e ) when it 
involves the construction of a treaty. In other cases than 

1 The pupil should be careful not to confuse the District Courts of 
the National system with those courts of the same name in the State 
system. 


THE NATIONAL COURTS 


209 


those mentioned, an appeal must be taken from the 
District Court to the Circuit Court of Appeals. 1 

For the trial of certain classes of cases upon appeal, 
Congress has established nine great judicial circuits and 
has provided for each circuit a court known as a (2) Cir¬ 
cuit Court of Appeals. This court is composed of regular 
circuit judges and of judges of the other courts. Three 
judges are necessary for the trial of a case and one of the 
three may be a Justice of the Supreme Court who is as¬ 
signed to the circuit. A judge, however, who has tried a 
case in the District Court cannot sit at the trial of the 
same case in the Circuit Court of Appeals. The Circuit 
Court of Appeals tries only those cases that are brought 
to it upon appeal from the District Court. 

The highest court in the United States system is the (3) 
Supreme Court , which sits at Washington. It consists of 
a chief justice and eight associate justices. In cases 
affecting ambassadors and consuls, and those in which a 
State is a party, it has original jurisdiction. This means 
that these cases must be tried for the first time in the Su¬ 
preme Court. The chief business of this great court, how¬ 
ever, is to try the cases that are appealed to it from the 
lower courts. The Supreme Court is the most exalted and 
in some respects the most powerful body in the United 
States. It acts as the guardian of the Constitution. If 
Congress or the Legislature of a State passes a law that 

1 For each District Court the President appoints a District Attorney 
and a Marshal. The duties of a District Attorney resemble those of 
a prosecuting attorney (p. 88); of a Marshal, those of a sheriff 


210 


NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 


conflicts with the Constitution of the United States, it de» 
dares that law null and void. If a State Court renders a 
decision that conflicts with the Constitution or with a law 
of the United States, the Supreme Court may overrule 



Supreme Court in Session 


the decision. It may pass judgment upon all questions 
of law or of fact that are appealed to it and that it chooses 
to consider. 

Special National Courts. —In addition to the regular 
national courts just described there are two important 
special national courts. One of these is the Court of 
Claims , which holds its sessions at Washington and which 
tries cases involving claims founded upon contracts made 
with the government of the United States. The other 
special court is the Court of Customs Appeal, which hears 
appeals from the decisions of officers engaged in collecting 
the customs tax (p. 190). 



















THE NATIONAL COURTS 


211 


QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Name three of the most important decisions that have been made 
by the Supreme Court in the history of our country. 

2. Name two of the most celebrated men who have served as Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court. 

3. Study the third article of the Constitution for answers to the 
following questions: 

(а) How long does a judge of a federal court hold office? 

(б) Can Congress reduce the salaries of the present judges? 

(c) In what court would a charge against a consul of a foreign coun¬ 

try be brought? 

( d ) In what court would a man be tried for robbing a post office? 

(e) In what court would a suit between a State and a citizen of a for¬ 

eign country be tried? 

4. Use the words “State” and “federal” properly in the following 
passage: 

There are less than a hundred and fifty-judges, and there are 

many thousands of-judges. “ A large majority of the cases at law 

are tried in-courts. If only-laws are involved in the case, the 

-courts can have nothing to do with it. Ordinary crimes, such as 

assaults, theft, and murder, can be tried only in-courts. In like 

manner nearly all cases arising in the administration of school laws, 
laws concerning paupers, highways,-taxation, the laws for the gov¬ 
ernment of cities and the holding of elections, are triable in the- 

courts alone. It is only when some provision of the-constitution, 

or some act of the United States Government is involved that a- 

court can act.”— Macy. 


J 











XXXVII. TAXATION: THE PROPERTY TAX 


“Taxation without representation is injustice and oppression.” 

— Burke. 

Introduction.—The expenses of government amount 
to a vast sum of money. The salaries of officers and 
employees have to be paid, large public buildings have 
to be erected, roads and streets have to be built and kept 
in repair, a costly system of public schools has to be sup¬ 
ported, vast fleets and armies have to be maintained. 
The money necessary to pay for all this comes from the 
pockets of citizens in the form of taxes. In this lesson 
and in the next you are to learn how government exercises 
the power of taxation, how it compels citizens to con¬ 
tribute money for the support of government. 

Taxation a Power of the Lawmaking Department.— 
Which of the three great departments of government has 
the power of taxation? This power belongs to the law¬ 
making department and to it alone. A Mayor, a Gov¬ 
ernor, a President, a Judge, cannot raise a single penny 
by taxation. Americans will pay only such taxes as they 
themselves in person have agreed to pay or such as their 
representatives in a legislature or lawmaking body have 
ordered to be paid. The City Council levies the city tax, 
the State Legislature levies the State tax, and Congress 
levies taxes for the support of the National Government. 

2X2 


THE PROPERTY TAX 


213 


Not only does the lawmaking branch have the power 
of raising money by taxation, but it also has the power 
of directing how that money shall be spent. The executive 
branch, it is true, actually spends the money raised by 
taxation, but it must spend this money precisely as the 
legislature directs. The legislature orders a certain sum 
of money to be collected from the people and placed in 
the public treasury and then it prescribes the manner 
in which that money is to be taken out and spent. Thus 
the power of the purse is given outright to the legislative 
department. In our study of the powers of government 
few facts have greater importance than this. 

The Property Tax.—A very large part of the money 
raised by taxation is collected from property owners who 
are compelled to pay the tax because they are property 
owners. The rule followed in laying taxes on property 
is this: The more property a man owns the greater must 
be his share of the tax. 

For purposes of taxation property is regarded as being 
of two kinds: (1) real property , which includes lands and 
buildings on land, and (2) personal property , which in¬ 
cludes such things as household furniture, money, goods, 
bonds, stocks, mortgages, jewels, horses, carriages, and 
farming implements. 

In most of the States there are certain kinds of prop¬ 
erty that are free from the burden of taxation. Thus, 
churches, cemeteries, schoolhouses, free libraries, charitable 
institutions, and all public buildings, are exempt from 
taxation. Likewise, in many States, household furniture 


214 


TAXATION 


worth no more than two or three hundred dollars is not 
taxed. 

How Each Taxpayers Share is Determined. —A tax 

collector presents to your father a tax bill, calling for, let 
us say, $33.50. How was this bill made out? How was 
it determined that your father should pay to the support 
of the government just $33.50, no more, no less? Let us 
try to get an answer to this question. 

Let us suppose that you live in a town, and that it is 
your town government that has sent the bill. The first 
step taken is to determine how much money is needed. 
It is found that the town needs 

For its schools, police, streets, waterworks, and other ex¬ 


penses of Town Government.$40,000 

For taxes due to the County Government. 6,000 

For taxes due to the State Government. 4,000 

Total amount of taxes to be raised.$50,000 


This $50,000 must be paid by the property owners of 
the town. In order to distribute the burden fairly, one 
or more Assessors visit all the houses and places of 
business in the town, and place upon every man's prop¬ 
erty what they think is a fair valuation. Thus they 
find that A has a house worth $3000 and furniture worth 
$500, or property worth in all $3500. B is found to own a 
factory worth $75,000 and goods worth $25,000. He is, 
therefore, assessed at $100,000. C owns building lots 
worth $2000 and horses and carriages worth $500. C's 
property, therefore, is put down on the Assessors' list at 
$2500. D owns a little house which the Assessor thinks 






THE PROPERTY TAX 


215 


is worth $400; his furniture is so scanty that no value is 
put upon it, and it escapes taxation. Your father’s prop¬ 
erty, we will suppose, is placed on the Assessors’ list at 
$1675. In this way the value of the property of every 
taxpayer in town is estimated by the Assessors and put 
upon the assessment list. By adding together the fortunes 
,of A, B, C, D, etc., the entire value of all the property in 
the town is found. Let us suppose that this amounts to 
$2,500,000. You remember that the amount to be raised 
by taxation is $50,000. Now if property worth $2,500,000 
must pay $50,000 in taxes, property worth one dollar 
must pay two cents in taxes. Every man in the town, 
therefore, must pay two cents in taxes for every dollar’s 
worth of property he owns. This two cents, or 2%, or .02 
is called the rate of taxation. 

A will pay . . S 3,500 X .02 . . $ 70.00 in taxes, 

B will pay . . 100,000 X .02 . . 2000.00 in taxes. 

You now see why your father’s tax bill is $33.50. 

The Collection of Taxes.—After the tax bills are made 
out, the Tax Collector collects the taxes from the owners 
of property and turns it over to the treasury of the town 
government. The Town Treasurer sends to the County 
Treasurer the share that belongs to the county, and to 
the State Treasurer the share that belongs to the State, 
and retains what is left for the expenses of the town gov¬ 
ernment. 

When a man refuses or neglects to pay his tax, the 
law will compel him to pay. The Tax Collector must 
collect the taxes, even if he is obliged to sell the property 


216 


TAXATION 


to get them. When land is sold for taxes, the owner may 
regain the land by paying to the purchaser within a speci¬ 
fied time the amount of the taxes with interest. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. When a property owner thinks his property has been assessed too 
high, he may complain to the Assessors, and if these officers think his 
complaint is just, they will reduce the assessment. Suppose the owner 
thinks his property has been assessed too low; should he go to the 
Assessors and request them to make the assessment larger? If a man 
should send you a bill for three dollars when you know you owe him 
five dollars, would you call his attention to the mistake? Should we 
be as honest with the government as we are with our neighbors? 

2. How is the money for the support of your school raised? Who is 
the largest taxpayer in your school district? Does he get more benefit 
from the government than any other man in the district? 

3. Name some of the returns taxpayers get for the money they pay 
to the government. 

4. Is wheat in a barn real property or personal property? 

5. What is the tax rate in your town? In your county? In your 
State? 

6. Name the kinds of property in your State that are exempt from 
taxation. (Examine your State constitution.) 


XXXVIII. OTHER TAXES 


“The taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the govern¬ 
ment were the only ones we had to pay we might more easily discharge 
them; but we have many others. We are taxed twice as much by oui 
idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much 
by our folly ."—Benjamin Franklin. 

The Income Tax. —Besides the general property tax, 
there are several other kinds of taxes. The Na¬ 
tional Government and a few States levy an income 
tax. This tax is laid upon a man’s salary, or 
upon his business profits, without reference to the 
amount of property he owns. A certain rate 
is determined upon by the government, and every 
man must pay according to his income. If the rate is 3%, 
and a man’s salary or the profit of his business is $3000, 
then he must pay $90 as his income tax. In a 'progressive 
or graduated income tax the rate grows larger with the 
income. Thus the rate might be 3% for all incomes under 
$5000; 4% for all incomes between $5000 and $10,000; 
5% for all incomes between $10,000 and $50,000; 8% for 
incomes between $50,000 and $100,000; 10% for all in¬ 
comes over $100,000. Do you think a progressive income 
tax is just? If a man with an income of $2000 a year has 
to pay a tax of $60, which is fairer for a man with $20,000 
a year income—to pay $600 or $1000? 

The Inheritance Tax is laid on property which a person 
receives as an inheritance from parents or other relatives 

217 


218 


TAXATION 


or which is left to a person by a will. Where there is an 
inheritance tax children or relatives must pay the tax 
before they can take possession of the property left them 
by their parents or other kinsmen. The rate of the in¬ 
heritance tax is often progressive or graduated, that is, 
the larger the inheritance the greater the rate of tax. 
The rate is often less for near relatives than for other 
people. Inheritance taxes are collected by the National 
Government and in three-fourths of the States. 

Licenses; Fees.—A license is a privilege granted by a 
government permitting one to engage in a certain occupa¬ 
tion or to perform a certain act. For granting a license 
the government usually charges a sum of money. The 
merchant’s license permits the sale of goods; the automo¬ 
bile license permits one to drive an automobile; the mar¬ 
riage license permits the marriage of the couple to whom 
it is granted. A. fee is a small sum paid to an officer of the 
government for the performance of some public service. 
Thus if you wish to get a deed to land properly recorded, 
you will have to pay the recording officer a small fee. 

Poll Tax.—This word poll means head; a poll tax, 
therefore, is a tax upon the man and not upon property. 
It is usually a small sum. A citizen above the age of 
twenty-one must pay this tax, although he has no prop¬ 
erty at all. Not all the States have a poll tax, but usually 
where there is such a tax, it must be paid before the citizen 
is allowed to vote. The poll tax is not popular in the 
United States, and in some of the States it is forbidden 
entirely. 


OTHER TAXES 


219 


The Franchise Tax.—A franchise is a special privilege 
given by government to a person or to a body of persons. 
For example, the right to use the streets of a city for a 
railway is a franchise; the right to lay pipes for supplying 
a city with gas is a franchise. Such franchises as these 
are sometimes extremely valuable. For example/ here is 
a street railway company whose cars and rails and wires 
and power houses are worth a million dollars but whose 
franchise—the right to use the streets—is worth two 
millions of dollars. In some States such a company would 
pay two taxes, a property tax on the power houses, cars, 
etc., and a franchise tax for the privilege of using the 
streets. 

Duties and Excises.—The taxes thus far described, 
the property tax, the income tax, the inheritance tax, 
and the franchise tax, are usually collected for the sup¬ 
port of town, city, county, and State governments. But 
the great government of the United States which has its 
seat at Washington must also be supported. And it takes 
an immense sum of money to support our National Gov¬ 
ernment. The salaries of several hundred thousand 
officials and the pensions of old soldiers and soldiers 7 
widows must be paid; costly public buildings in Wash¬ 
ington and custom houses and post offices in large cities 
must be built; the interest on a tremendous public 
debt must be met; an army and a navy must be sup¬ 
ported. To do all this requires several billion dollars 
a year. In order to raise this amount Congress orders 
the collection of duties , excises , and other taxes. 


220 


TAXATION 


A duty is a tax or tariff laid upon goods that are im¬ 
ported into this country from foreign countries. This 
tax is paid to government officers by the merchant who 
imports the goods. But the merchant does not bear the 
burden of the tax. If he is compelled to pay a duty of 75 
cents per yard upon silk which he imports from France, 
this 75 cents is added to the first cost. If, without a duty, 
he could sell his customers French silk for $1.50 per yard 
at a profit of 10%, with a duty of 75 cents, he sells them the 
silk for $2.32 per yard. It is, therefore, the customers 
who pay this duty, or tax. 

Excises are taxes paid by manufacturers upon goods 
made in this country. Thus the taxes upon tobacco, 
cigars, and playing cards are excises. An excise tax, like 
a duty, is paid by one person, but the burden is usually 
shifted to another. If a tobacco manufacturer is com¬ 
pelled to pay a tax of 50 cents upon every box of cigars 
he makes, he counts this as a part of the cost, and charges 
his customers accordingly. A “special excise tax” is 
levied on the earnings of corporations. 

Duties and excises are called indirect taxes,” because 
the real burden of these taxes does not fall directly upon 
the people who pay them, but indirectly upon some one 
else. Excises and duties are laid upon such articles as 
tobacco, sugar, tea, coffee, woolen goods, cotton goods, 
leather, iron, tin, etc. From this we see that everybody 
who wears clothes and consumes food, that is, the whole 
population, contributes something to the support of the 
National Government. 


OTHER TAXES 


221 


The national income tax is a progressive tax. In 1920 
this tax was 4% per annum on the amount of net in¬ 
come over $1000 for individuals and over $2000 for 
husband and wife living together. An additional tax 
of 4% was levied on net income over $5000 (or $6000); 
also surtaxes of 1% on income over $5000, 2% on 
income over $6000, and so on, up to 65% on incomes 
over $1,000,000. 

Eminent Domain.—Closely related to the govern¬ 
ment’s right of taxation, is its right of “ eminent domain.” 
By this is meant its right to take private property for 
public uses. If the government wishes to use your house 
for a post office, or if it desires to run a street through 
your garden, or a road through your field, you have not 
the power to prevent it. Yet the government must pay 
you a fair price for your property, and it must not compel 
you to part with it unless it can be shown that it is for 
the public good that you should do so. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Do all citizens have to pay taxes? Think well before you answer 
this question. 

2. What kind of taxes are paid without those who pay them seem¬ 
ing to know it? What kind of taxes do they pay most cheerfully? 

3. Has taxation ever been a cause of war? 

4. How are churches supported? 

5. How are duties collected? 

6. Is a poll tax a just tax? Is there a poll tax in your State? 

7. What is meant by “smuggling”? 

8. Is an income tax that exempts all incomes under $1000 just? 

9. For what do people pay taxes most cheerfully? 

10. How may a city acquire land for a park? 


XXXIX. PARTY GOVERNMENT: ORGANIZATION 
OF POLITICAL PARTIES 


“A political party is a body of men united for promoting by their 
joint endeavors the national interest upon some particular principle in 
which they are all agreed. Party divisions, whether on the whole op¬ 
erating for good or evil, are things inseparable from free govern¬ 
ment .”—Edmund Burke. 

Introduction.—In the lesson about the election of a 
President it was said that no one can hope to be chosen to 
that high office unless he is first nominated by some great 
political party. What is true of the highest officer in the 
land is also true for the most part of the lower officers: if 
a man wishes to be elected to any important office what¬ 
ever he must secure his election through a party. More¬ 
over, if a citizen or a large number of citizens wish certain 
laws to be passed, or desire the government to do certain 
things, they must work with a party and accomplish their 
aims through the aid of a party. So the political party is 
the real force that keeps the wheels of government in mo¬ 
tion. Since our government is thus a party government it 
is almost as important to understand the nature and work¬ 
ings of political parties as it is to understand the nature 
and workings of government itself. 

The Organization of Political Parties.—The chief aim 
of a political party is to secure control of the government, 
and the chief work of the party is to win, or to try to win, 
222 


ORGANIZATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES 


223 


elections. In order to carry an election the party is thor¬ 
oughly organized. A great political party is a mighty 
organization consisting of a vast army of workers each of 
whom has a particular task to perform. The main features 
of the machinery of a party are (1) the permanent organ¬ 
ization; (2) the primary meeting, and (3) the nominating 
conventions. 

(1) The Permanent Organization .—The permanent or¬ 
ganization of a party consists of a series of regularly chosen 
committees. At the bottom of the series is the local com¬ 
mittee which is found in almost every township, village, 
and city ward. Above the local committee is the county 
or city committee. Next in the scale is the State com¬ 
mittee, while at the top of the series is the great National 
committee consisting of one member from each State and 
Territory. Each committee attends to the affairs of the 
party within the boundaries of a particular civil or politi¬ 
cal division, the township committee working- within the 
township, the ward committee within the ward, the county 
committee within the county, and so on. 

These permanent committees support the life of the 
party from one election to the next. They bear the bur¬ 
den and heat of the day in party service. They issue calls 
for primary meetings and the nominating conventions. 
“They organize political clubs; they arrange for political 
mass meetings and processions; they raise funds for con¬ 
ducting campaigns; they urge voters to be registered 
and then urge them to come to the polls; in many other 
ways they promote and defend the interests of the party, 


224 


PARTY GOVERNMENT 


through good and ill report, after defeat as well as after 
success.” 

(2) The Primary or Caucus .—The Primary, or Caucus, 
is a regular meeting of the voters. The meeting is usually 
called together by a permanent committee. The work of 
the primary consists in electing members of the local per¬ 
manent committee, in choosing candidates for office, and 
in attending to other party affairs. Sometimes the pri¬ 
mary is a real folkmoot; the voters assemble in a room or 
in a hall and engage personally in the management of party 
affairs, discussing questions as well as voting upon ques¬ 
tions. Often, however, the primary is simply a party elec¬ 
tion at which men and measures are voted upon in almost 
the same manner as they are at a regular election (p. 50). 
In many States primary elections are regulated by law and 
must be conducted without any fraud or violence. 

It is at the primary that the voter is brought close to 
his party. Here his voice and his vote are direct. What 
voters do at the primary is felt throughout the entire party 
organization. If voters, therefore, desire to keep control 
of their party and make it do their will they must first 
attend the primary and make it do their will. 

^ (3) Nominating Conventions .—You learned that a can¬ 
didate for President is nominated by a great convention 
which is the highest of a series of conventions. Candi¬ 
dates for offices lower than the presidency are also fre¬ 
quently nominated by conventions. Candidates for the 
lowest local offices are generally nominated directly at the 
primary, but in many of the States nominations for the 


ORGANIZATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES 


225 


higher places are made by conventions composed of party 
representatives or delegates. Thus if a party wishes to 
nominate a candidate for a county office, as, for example, 
a candidate for sheriff, the voters at primary meetings 
throughout the county choose delegates to a county 
convention and this nominates the candidate for sheriff. 
When a candidate for a State office, as, for example, a 
candidate for Governor, is to be nominated, a series of con¬ 
ventions may be necessary: The primaries send delegates 
to a county (or city) convention; the county and city 
conventions throughout the State send delegates to a State 
convention; and this nominates the candidate for Governor. 
Observe that in all cases where candidates are nominated 
by conventions the voters have no direct voice in the 
choice of candidates. 

Nomination of Candidates by a Direct Primary Vote. 

—For a long time parties in all the States followed the 
custom of nominating candidates by the convention plan 
as described above. But in many States the plan did not 
work well. It was found that the nominating convention 
fell into the hands of men who cared more for their own 
interests than they did for the welfare of the public, 
and unworthy candidates were nominated. So in many 
of the States candidates are no longer nominated by con¬ 
vention but by a direct primary vote. In these States 
when a party wishes to nominate a candidate for sheriff, 
for example, the voters of the party vote for the candidate 
of their choice at primary elections held throughout the 
county, and the candidate who wins at the primaries be- 


226 


PARTY GOVERNMENT 


comes the regular party candidate. If a candidate for 
Governor is to be chosen the voters of the party through¬ 
out the State express their choice of candidates at pri¬ 
maries, and the candidate successful at the primaries is 
regarded as the regular party candidate for Governor. 
Observe that where the convention plan is done away with 
and the direct primary plan is adopted the voters have a 
direct voice in the choice of party candidates. 1 In some 
States the voters are given opportunity to express their 
preference in respect to presidential candidates, and thus to 
direct the action of delegates in the national party con¬ 
vention. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. About how many party workers are there on all the permanent 
committees of each of the great parties in your State? About how 
many in the United States ? (When estimating the number of workers 
in your State it would be well to consult with some one engaged in prac¬ 
tical politics. For the number in the United States make a calculation 
based on population.) 

2. Name four political parties. Name some of the leaders of each 
of these parties. 

3. Are nominations in this State made by a direct primary vote or 
by conventions ? 

4. Which would you favor, nominations by convention or nomina¬ 
tions by a direct primary vote ? 

5. Name the leading politicians of your State. 

6. Which party in your State was victorious at the last election for 
Governor? How many votes did this party receive? How many 
votes were cast at that election for each of the other political parties ? 

1 For a full account of direct nominations see " Primary Elections,” 
by C. Edward Merriam, 


XL. PARTY GOVERNMENT: THE CITIZEN AND 
HIS PARTY 


“ If a party supporter finds that his party is becoming committed to 
a policy which he believes will work serious injury to the State, fidel¬ 
ity to his party as well as to the State will require him to seek to 
change the course of his party. If this can best be done by voting 
against his party, faithfulness to true party interest may lead him to so 
act. If the party nominates a candidate whose election the voter be ¬ 
lieves will be a source of weakness or injury to the State, then his duty 
to his party as well as duty to the State should impel him to seek to 
defeat such candidate .’’—Jesse Macy. 

The Choice of a Party.—Since our government is con¬ 
trolled by political parties, it is through the party that 
the citizen reaches his government and exerts his influence 
upon it. Everybody, therefore, upon coming of age 
is called upon to vote with one of the political parties. 
Of course he will wish to vote for the best party. How 
shall he decide which is the best? He will look over the 
field carefully and will choose the party that he thinks 
will serve his country the best. He will not in an idle 
fashion merely drift into a party. Nor will he vote for a 
certain party simply because his father or his set votes for 
it, or because he hopes to secure an office at its hands. 
The young citizen should not enter a party blindfolded. 
He should make a careful study of the history and prin¬ 
ciples of all the great political parties and learn what each 
has already done for the country, and what each proposes 
227 


228 


PARTY GOVERNMENT 


to do, and then make his choice. The principles of a party 
may be found stated in its platform. A careful study of 
the various party platforms would be a great assistance 
to a young man or woman trying to select the best party. 

True Leaders and False Leaders. —After the young 
citizen has chosen his party he will then be called upon to 
make a choice of party leaders, for a party must have 
leaders. These party leaders are the real political repre¬ 
sentatives of the voter. Into their hands the citizen sur¬ 
renders the power of his vote. If the party is defeated, 
that is the end of the matter for the time being; but if it 
is victorious the leaders will wield the power of govern¬ 
ment. So one of the very first things the citizen has to do 
is to make a wise choice of party leaders. 

We have always before us two kinds of leaders beckon¬ 
ing for our votes, true leaders and false leaders. The true 
leader wishes us to give him power in order that he may 
use it to advance the interests of the public. A leader of 
this kind is a statesman, for he works for the interest of 
the State, that is, for the interest of all the people. The 
statesman regards his office as a sacred trust, and he would 
scorn to use it for selfish purposes. 

Statesmen are the life and strength of a nation. It was 
the statesmen of the past that gave us the great and 
glorious country we have. If I should ask you who they 
were, the names of men like Washington and Jefferson and 
Webster and Lincoln would leap from your lips. You 
can name the statesmen of the past, but can you name 
the true statesmen of to-day? You must be able to do 


THE CITIZEN AND HIS PARTY 


229 


this if you wish to vote right. If you wish to keep your 
country great and glorious you must be able to select true 
leaders. 

And you must also be able to detect false leaders when 
they come before you asking for your vote. The false 
leader is the demagogue. He comes before the people with 
flattery on his tongue. A statesman will scold the people 
if they need scolding, but the demagogue, in order to get 
their votes, praises them to the skies. In olden times the 
courtier gained power by flattering the king. In a de¬ 
mocracy the demagogue tries to gain power by flattering 
the people. He appeals to the prejudices and passions and 
not to reason. The statesman appeals to the judgment of 
voters and tries to enlighten their minds with knowledge, 
but the demagogue throws dust into their eyes and blinds 
them. The demagogue is as rich in promises as he is in 
praise. He professes to be able to do wonderful things for 
the people. What do the people desire? Do they want 
plenty of money and nothing to do? Elect him to office 
and he will give them riches and leisure. Do the people 
want the rivers to flow with milk and honey? Choose him 
as their leader and he will bring this to pass. 

The purpose of the demagogue is plain enough. He 
flatters and deceives and lies in order to advance his pri¬ 
vate interests. For the public welfare he may not care a 
rap. He is bent on winning fame or fortune or power for 
himself and in order to get these he would lead the people 
anywhere, even to destruction. 

Study the ways of the demagogue so that you may be 


230 


PARTY GOVERNMENT 


able to look behind his mask and expose him. But do not 
think that this is easy to do. The demagogue is rich in his 
resources, his disguises are numerous, and he will some¬ 
times deceive the best of us. But we must learn to know 
him and must keep him down, for he is perhaps the greatest 
enemy with which democracy has to deal. 

Loyalty to Party.—Although the citizen may have chosen 
his party with the greatest care he may one day find 
that he no longer feels at home in his party. Its principles 
may be changed or his views may be changed. The party 
may stand for things he does not believe in or it may ask 
him to vote for unworthy candidates. Indeed it may seem 
to him that the party is going against the best interests of 
the country. Now if a voter’s party is going wrong and 
there is another party that seems to be going right, what 
should the voter do? The question answers itself: he 
should leave his party. This is sometimes not easy to do. 
A man who has voted for and worked with a political party 
for some years becomes attached to it and finds it difficult 
to vote for another party. Besides, if he leaves his party 
he is pretty sure to offend his party associates, who call 
him traitor or turncoat or mugwump, or some other harsh 
name. 

Nevertheless there are times when it is the duty of 
a good citizen to vote against his party. When he be¬ 
lieves the principles of his party are no longer good for his 
country, or when he is asked by his party to vote for dis¬ 
honest or dangerous or grossly incompetent men, it is his 
plain duty to leave his party. When he is asked to de- 


THE CITIZEN AND HIS PARTY 


231 


cide between the interests of his party and the interests 
of his country, he will of course decide for his country. 
In times of war a man’s love for his country is tested by 
his willingness to fight for it and die for it, but in times of 
peace his patriotism is tested by his willingness to vote 
right , whatever may be his interests or prejudices, or party 
ties. 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 

1. Compare the last Democratic national platform with the last 
Republican national platform, and point out the chief differences in the 
principles of the two parties. 

2. What is the difference between a “boss” and a “leader”? 

3. Point out a few of the benefits an honest politician can confer 
upon the people. 

4. Is it always desirable that a person vote the same ticket at all elec¬ 
tions, local, State, and National? 

5. Recite the duties of the voter as they are stated on page 59. 

6. When you shall become qualified do you intend to vote? What- 
personal advantage will you reap from voting? What loss will it b» 
to your fellow men if when you shall come of age, you do not vote? 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES —1787 1 


We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com¬ 
mon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Con¬ 
stitution for the United States of America. 

ARTICLE I 

Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in 
a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and 
House of Representatives. 

Section 2. 1 The House of Representatives shall be composed of 

members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, 
and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for 
electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature. 

2 No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to 
the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in 
which he shall be chosen. 

3 Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the 
several States which may be included within this Union, according to 
their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the 
whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term 
of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other per¬ 
sons. 2 The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after 
the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every 
subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. 
The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty 
thousand, but each State shall have at least one representative ; and until 
such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be 
entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Provi¬ 
dence plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, 

1 This reprint of the Constitution exactly follows the text of that in the 
Department of State at Washington, save in the spelling of a few words. 

2 Partly superseded by the 14th Amendment. (See p. 246.) 

232 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


233 


Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North 
Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

4 When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the 

executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such 
vacancies. * 

5 The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other 
officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Section 3. 1 The Senate of the United States shall he composed of 

two senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof for six 
years ; and each senator shall have one vote. 1 

2 Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the 
first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three 
classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at 
the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of 
the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, 
so that one third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies 
happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature 
of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments 
until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such 
vacancies. 1 

3 No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age 
of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and 
who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he 
shall be chosen. 

4 The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the 
Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

5 Tho Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president pro 
tempore , in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise 
the office of President of the United States. 

6 The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. 
When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. 
When the President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall 
preside: and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two 
thirds of the members present. 

7 Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to 
removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of 
honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted 
shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and 
punishment, according to law. 

Section 4. 1 The times, places, and manner of holding elections for 

1 Partly superseded by Seventeenth Amendment . 


234 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the 
legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or 
alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. 

2 The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such 
meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by 
law appoint a different day. 

Section 5. 1 Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns 

and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall con¬ 
stitute a quorum to do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from 
day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent 
members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each House may 
provide. 

2 Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its 
members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, 
expel a member. 

3 Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time 
to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment 
require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House 
on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be 
entered on the journal. 

4 Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the 
consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other 
place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. 

Section 6 . 1 The senators and representatives shall receive a com¬ 
pensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the 
Treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, 
felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their 
attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and 
returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either House, 
they shall not be questioned in any other place. 

2 No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he 
was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the 
United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof 
shall have been increased during such time ; and no person holding any 
office under the United States shall be a member of either House during 
his continuance in office. 

Section 7. 1 All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the 

House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with 
amendments as on other bills. 

2 Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and 
the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President- 
of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


235 


return it, with his objections to that House in which it shall have origi¬ 
nated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed 
to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two thirds of that House 
shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, 
to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if 
approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a law. But in all 
such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, 
and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be en¬ 
tered on the journal of each House respectively. If any bill shall not be 
returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it 
/shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner 
as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent 
its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 

3 Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the 
Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a ques¬ 
tion of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United 
States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, 
or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate 
and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations pre¬ 
scribed in the case of a bill. 

Section 8. 1 The Congress shall have power to lay and collect 

taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the 
common defense and general welfare of the United States ; but all duties, 
imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; 

2 To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

3 To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several 
States, and with the Indian tribes; 

4 To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on 
the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

5 To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and 
fix the standard of weights and measures; 

6 To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and 
current coin of the United States; 

7 To establish post offices and post roads ; 

8 To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for 
limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respec¬ 
tive writings and discoveries; 

9 To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 

10 To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high 
seas, and offenses against the law of nations; 

11 To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make 
rules concerning captures on land and water ; 


236 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


12 To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to tha* 
use shall be for a longer term than two years; 

13 To provide and maintain a navy; 

14 To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and 
naval forces; 

15 To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the 
Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions; 

16 To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and. 
for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the 
United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the 
officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the disci* 
pline prescribed by Congress; 

17 To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such 
district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular 
States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government 
of the United States, 1 and to exercise like authority over all places pur¬ 
chased by the consent of the legislature of the State in which the same 
shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and 
other needful buildings ; and 

18 To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying 
into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this 
Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department 
or officer thereof. 

Section 9. 1 The migration or importation of such persons as any 
of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be pro¬ 
hibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and 
eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceed¬ 
ing ten dollars for each person. 

2 The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, 
unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require 
it. 

3 No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 

4 No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion 
to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 

5 No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. 

6 No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or reve¬ 
nue to the ports of one State over those of another: nor shall vessels 
bound to, or from, one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in 
another. 

1 The District of Columbia, which comes under these regulations, had not 
then been erected. 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


237 


7 No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of 
appropriations made by law ; and a regular statement and account of the 
receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time 
to time. 

8 No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no 
person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the 
consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, 
of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State. 

Section 10. 1 No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or con* 

federation ; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money ; emit bills 
of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of 
debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the 
obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 

2 No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts 
or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary 
for executing its inspection laws: and the net produce of all duties and 
imposts laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of 
the treasury of the United States ; and all such laws shall be subject to 
the revision and control of the Congress. 

3 No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of 
tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any 
agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or 
engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as 
will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE II 

Section 1. 1 The executive power shall be vested in a President of 
the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of 
four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same 
term, be elected, as follows 

2 Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof 
may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators 
and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: 
but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust or 
profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

i The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot 
for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the 
same State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the per¬ 
sons voted for, and of the number of votes for each ; which list they shall 
sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the 

i The following paragraph was in force only from 1788 to 1803. 


238 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


United States, directed to the president of the Senate. The president of the 
Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
open all the certificates, and the votes shall then he counted. The person 
having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number 
be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be 
more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of 
votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by 
ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then 
from the five highest on the list the said house shall in like manner choose 
the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken 
by States, the representation from each State having one vote ; a quorum 
for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of 
the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. 
In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the 
greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President. But 
if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate 
shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President. 1 

3 The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and 
the day on which they shall give their votes j which day shall be the same 
throughout the United States. 

4 No person except a natural bom citizen, or a citizen of the United 
States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to 
the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office 
who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been four¬ 
teen years a resident within the United States. 

5 In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, 
resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said 
office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress 
may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or ina¬ 
bility, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer 
shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until 
the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 

6 The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a com¬ 
pensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the 
period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive 
within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any 
of them. 

7 Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the fol¬ 
lowing oath or affirmation: — “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I 
will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and 

1 Superseded by the 12th Amendment. (See p. 246.) 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


239 


will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States.” 

Section 2. 1 The President shall be commander in chief of the 
army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several 
States, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may 
require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the 
executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their 
respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons 
for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

2 He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators present con¬ 
cur ; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of 
the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, 
judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, 
whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which 
shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the 
appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the Presi¬ 
dent alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

3 The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may 
happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which 
shall expire at the end of their next session. 

Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress infor¬ 
mation of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration 
such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on 
extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in 
case of disagreement between them with respect to the time of adjourn¬ 
ment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he 
shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care 
that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission .all the officers 
of the United States. 

Section 4. The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the 
United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and con¬ 
viction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III 

Section 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested 
in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may 
from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme 
and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and 
shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation which 
shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. 

■ Section 2. 1 The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and 


240 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, 
and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; — to 
all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; — 
to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; — to controversies to 
which the United States shall be a party ; — to controversies between two 
or more States; — between a State and citizens of another State ; 1 — be¬ 
tween citizens of different States, — between citizens of the same State 
claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State, or 
the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens or subjects. 

2 In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and con¬ 
suls, and those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall 
have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the 
Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and to 
fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress 
shall make. 

3 The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by 
jury ; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall 
have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the 
trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have 
directed. 

Section 3. 1 Treason against the United States, shall consist only in 

levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them 
aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the 
testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in 
open court. 

2 The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, 
but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture 
except during the life of the person attainted. 

ARTICLE IV 

Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the 
public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And 
the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such 
acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

Section 2. 1 The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privi¬ 
leges and immunities of citizens in the several States. 

2 A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, 
who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on de¬ 
mand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be 
delivered up to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 


1 See the 11th Amendment, p. 245. 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


241 


3 No person held to service or labor in one State, nnder the laws 
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regu¬ 
lation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be 
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may 
be due. 

Section 3. 1 New States may be admitted by the Congress into this 

Union ; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdic¬ 
tion of any other State ; nor any State be formed by the junction of two' 
or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the legislatures 
of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. 

2 The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful 
rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging 
to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so con¬ 
strued as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular 
State. 

Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this 
Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them 
against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the execu¬ 
tive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence. 

ARTICLE V 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it 
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the 
application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall 
call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall 
be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when 
ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by 
convention^ in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of 
ratification may be proposed by the Congress ; Provided that no amend¬ 
ment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred 
and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the 
ninth section of the first article ; and that no State, without its consent, 
shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI 

1 All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the 
adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States 
under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 

2 This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be 
made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, 
under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the 


242 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


land ; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in 
the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

3 The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the mem 
bers of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, 
both of the United States, and of the several States, shall be bound by 
oath or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but no religious test 
shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under 
the United States. 


ARTICLE VII 

The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for 
the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the 
same. 1 

Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present the 
seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the United 
States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto 
subscribed our names, 

Go: Washington — 

Presidt. and Deputy from Virginia 


New Hampshire 
John Langdon 
Nicholas Gilman 

Massachusetts 
Nathaniel Gorham 
Rufus King 

Connecticut 
Wm. Sami. Johnson 
Roger Sherman 

New York 
Alexander Hamilton 

New Jersey 
Wil: Livingston 
David Brearley 


Wm. Paterson 
Jona: Dayton 

Pennsylvania 
B. Franklin 
Thomas Mifflin 
Robt. Morris 
Geo. Clymer 
Thos. Fitzsimons 
Jared Ingersoll 
James Wilson 
Gouv Morris 

Delaware 
Geo: Read 

Gunning Bedford Jun 
John Dickinson 
Richard Bassett 
Jaco: Broom 


i After the Constitution had been adopted by the Convention it was ratified 
by conventions held in each of the states. 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


243 


Maryland 
James McHenry 
Dan of St. Thos Jenifer 
Danl. Carroll 

Virginia 
John Blair — 

James Madison Jr. 

North Carolina 
Wm. Blount 
Richd. Dobbs Spaight 
Hu Williamson. 

Attest 


South Carolina 
J. Rutledge, 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney 
Charles Pinckney 
Pierce Butler. 

Georgia 
William Few 
Abr Baldwin 


William Jackson Secretary. 


Articles in addition to, and amendment of, the Constitution of the United 
States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the legisla¬ 
tures of the several States pursuant to the fifth article of the original 
Constitution. 

ARTICLE Ii 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridging the freedom of speech, 
or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to 
petition the government for a redress of grievances. 

ARTICLE II 

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State* 
the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. 

ARTICLE III 

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without 
the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be pre¬ 
scribed by law. 

ARTICLE IV 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, 
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be vio¬ 
lated, and no warrants shalMssue, but upon probable cause, supported by 

i The first ten Amendments were adopted in 1791. 



244 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, 
and the persons or things to be seized. 

ARTICLE V 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous 
crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in 
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual 
service in time of war or public danger ; nor shall any person be subject 
for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall 
be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be 
deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall 
private property be taken for public use without just compensation. 

ARTICLE VI 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a 
speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district 
wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have 
been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and 
cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; 
to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to 
have the assistance of counsel for his defense. 

ARTICLE VII 

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed 
twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact 
tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United 
States, than according to the rules of the common law. 

ARTICLE VIII 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor 
Cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

ARTICLE IX 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be 
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

ARTICLE X 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to 
the people. 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


245 


ARTICLE XIi 

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend 
to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the 
United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of 
any foreign State. 

ARTICLE XII* 

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot 
for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an 
inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their 
ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person 
voted for as Vice President, and they shall make distinct lists of all per¬ 
sons voted for as President and of all persons voted for as Vice President, 
and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and 
certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United 
States, directed to the president of the Senate;—The president of the 
Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; — The person 
having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, 
if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; 
and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the 
highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as 
President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by 
ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be 
taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a 
quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two 
thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary 
to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a 
President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before 
the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice President shall act 
as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability 
of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as 
Vice President shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority 
of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a 
majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall 
choose the Vice President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two 
thirds of the whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole 
number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally 
ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice Presi¬ 
dent of the United States. 


l Adopted in 1798. 


2 Adopted in 1801. 


246 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


ARTICLE XIII 1 

Section 1. 1 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as 

punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, 
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their juris¬ 
diction. 

2 Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

ARTICLE XIV 2 

1 All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to 
the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State 
wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which 
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; 
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without 
due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the 
equal protection of the laws. 

2 Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States accord¬ 
ing to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons 
in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote 
at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President 
of the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and judi¬ 
cial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied 
to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years 
of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except 
for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation 
therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male 
citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years 
of age in such State. 

3 No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or elector 
of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under 
the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an 
oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or 
as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer 
of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have 
engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or 
comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two 
thirds of each House, remove such disability. 

4 The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by 
law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for 
services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. 


1 Adopted in 1865. 


2 Adopted in 1868. 


CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES 


247 


But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt 
or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the 
United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; 
but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

6 The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, 
the provisions of this article. 

ARTICLE XV i 

Section 1 . The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall 
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account 
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
appropriate legislation. 

ARTICLE XVI 2 

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from 
whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, 
and without regard to any census or enumeration. 


ARTICLE XVII 2 

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from 
each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator 
shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications 
requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. 

When vacancies happen in thp representation of any State in the Senate, 
the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of elections to fill such 
vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the 
executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the 
vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. 

ARTICLE XVIII 3 

Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manu¬ 
facture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation 
thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all 
territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby 
prohibited. 

Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent 
power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 


1 Adopted in 1870. 


2 Adopted in 1913. 


3 Adopted in 1919. 


248 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


ARTICLE XIX 1 

Section 1 . The right of citizens of the United States to vote 
shall not be denied or abridged.by the United States or by any State on 
account of sex. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power, by appropriate legislation, 
to enforce the provisions of this article. 


1 Adopted in 1920. 


INDEX 


Agriculture, Department of, 178; 

organization of, 196. 

Alaska, 202. 

Aliens, 34, 48. 

Ambassadors, 183. 

Amendment to Constitution, of 
State, 123; of United States, 
155. 

Anarchists, 36. 

Animal Industry, Bureau of, 197. 
Articles of Confederation, 151. 
Assembly, right of, 42. 

Assessors, 90, 97, 101, 214. 
Attainder, bill of, 166. 

Attendance of pupils, 29. 
Attorney-General, of State, 141; 

of the United States, 188. 
Auditors, of county, 90; of State, 
141; of township, 101. 
“Australian System,” 51. 

. Bail, 44, 145. 

Ballot, 50-52. 

Banks, supervision of, 192, 199. 
Biological Survey, Bureau of, 197. 
Bonds, 162. 

Boroughs, 105. 

Bribery, 52. 

Cabinet meetings, 178. 

Caucus, 224. 

Census, Bureau of, 198. 

Charter, the municipal, 105-107. 
Checks and balances, 73-78. 
Children, 20-22. 

Chinese, 36. 

Circuit Court, of State, (District 
Court), 145. 

Circuit Court of Appeals, 209. 
Citizen, meaning of word, 33; and 
his party, 227-231. 

Citizenship, 33-59. 


City charter, 106. 

City Council, 109-112. 

Civil cases, 149. 

Civil rights, 37-45. 

Civil service, of the National Gov¬ 
ernment, 179. 

Civil Service Commission, 179. 

Clerk, of county court, 89; of town, 
97; of township, 101. 

Coast Guard, 192. 

Commerce, regulation of, 162. 

Commerce, Department of, 178, 
197. 

Commission system of municipal 
government, 113. 

Committees, legislative, 129; party, 
223. 

Common Pleas, Court of, 145. 

Comptroller, State, 141. 

Comptroller of the Treasury, 191. 

Confederation, Articles of, 151. 

Congress, powers of, 162-167; the 
two houses of, 156; what it may 
not do, 166-167. 

Constables, 97, 101. 

Constitution, meaning of the word, 
120; of State, 120-124; of the 
United States, 153-155. 

Constitutional Convention, State, 

122 . 

Constitutional Convention of 1787, 
152. 

Constitutions, how changed, 123; 
how made, 122. 

Construction and Repair, Bureau 
of, 186. 

Consuls, 184. 

Conventions, of political parties, 
169-171, 223. 

Copyright, 163. 

Coroner, 89. 

Counterfeiting, 163. 




249 


250 


INDEX 


County, 85-91. 

County Commissioners, 87. 

Court-martial, 186. 

Courts, National, 206-210; three 
grades of, 207-210; kind of 
cases tried in, 206, 207. 

Courts, State, 144-149. 

Criminal cases, 149. 

Criminals not allowed to vote, 48. 

Customs duties, 190. 

Declaration of Rights, 121. 

Defendant, 148. 

Defense of country, 56. 

Demagogue, 229. 

Democracy, a government of jus¬ 
tice, 65; a government of reason, 
62-65; defined, 62; pure, 67; 
representative, 67. 

Departments of government, the 
three great, 73-77; independ¬ 
ence of, 77. 

Departments of the National Gov¬ 
ernment, the ten executive, 
176-178. 

Dependencies, 202. 

Direct primaries, 225. 

District Attorney, of the county, 
88; of the United States, 209. 

District Court, State, 145; United 
States, 208. 

District of Columbia, 165, 204. 

Due process of law, 44. 

Duties, of citizens, 55-59; of teach¬ 
ers and pupils, 29-32; of voters, 
58. 

Duties, on exports, 167; on im¬ 
ports, 220. 

Education, 21, 48; National Com¬ 
missioner of, 196. 

Elections, 50-54. 

Electors, presidential, 171-173. 

Emirient domain, 221. 

Engraving and Printing, Bureau 
of, 192. 

Entomology, Bureau of, 197. 

Ex post facto law prohibited in 
the Constitution, 166. 

Excises, 220. 


Family, 19-23. 

Fees, 218. 

Fisheries, Bureau of, 198. 
Franchise Tax, 219. 

General Staff, 185. - 
Geological Survey, 196. 
Government, democratic, 62; 
meaning of the word, 11; rep¬ 
resentative, 68; the services of, 
13, 83; the three grades of, 80. 
Government Printing Office, 199. 
Governor, 133, 138-140. 

Habeas Corpus, 38, 166. 

House of Representatives, Na¬ 
tional, 156-158; State, 76. 
Husband and wife, 19. 

Idiots, 48. 

Imbeciles, 48. 

Impeachment, 142. 

Inauguration, 173. 

Income tax, 190, 217, 219. 

Indian Affairs, Office of, 194. 
Inheritance Tax, 217. 

Initiative and referendum, 133- 
134. 

Interstate Commerce Commission, 
162, 198. 

Japanese, 36. 

Judge-Advocate-General, 186. 
Judicial Department, 74. 

Jury, 44; grand, 146; petit, 147. 
Justice, Department of, 188. 
Justice of the Peace, 101,144. 

Labor, Department of, 198. 
Land Office, 194. 

Laws, 13, 55; how made, 131-133, 
159. 

Leaders, true and false, 228-230. 
Legislative Department, 74-76. 
Legislature, State, branches of, 
126; election of members of, 
127; organization of, 128; when 
it meets, 125. 

Library of Congress, 199. 

Licenses, 218. 


INDEX 


251 


Lieutenant Governor, 129, 140. 
Life-saving, 192. 

Local self-government, 80-84. 
Lunatics, 48. 

Majority, 53; rule of the, 60-66; 

tyranny of, 65. 

Marque and reprisal, 164. 
Marriage, 19. 

Marshall, 188. 

Mayor, 112. 

Message, of Governor, 139; of the 
President, 175. 

Military Academy, 186. 

Militia, 165, 185. 

Ministers, 183. 

Mints, 192. 

Moderator, 95. 

Money, 163, 191. 

Municipal Government, 103-114; 
services of, 114. 

Naturalization, 35, 163. 

Naval Academy, 186. 

Navy, Department of, 177; organ¬ 
ization of, 186. 

Nobility, title of, 167. 

Nominating Conventions, 224. 

Office, right of holding, 53. 
Ordnance, Bureau of, 187. 
Ordnance, Chief of, 186. 
Overseers of the poor, 97, 101. 

Pardon of criminals, 139, 175. 
Parents and children, 20-22. 
Party government, 222-231. 
Party organization, 168-171, 222- 
225; choice of, 227; loyalty to, 
230. 

Patent Office, 194. 

Patents, 163. 

Paupers, 49. 

Pensions, 195. 

People, power of, 60. 

Personal liberty, 38. 

Personal security, 37. 

Petition, right of, 43. 

Philippine Islands, 203. 

Piracy, 164. 


Plaintiff, 148. 

Plant Industry, Bureau of, 197. 
Plurality, 53. 

Political rights, 46. 

Poll tax, 47, 167, 218. 

Polls, the, 51. 

Porto Rico, 202. 

Ports of entry, 190. 

Post Office Department, 177; or¬ 
ganization of, 193. 

Post Offices, 163. 

President of the United States, 36; 
election of, 171-174; nomina¬ 
tion of candidate for, 168-171; 
powers and duties of, 175-177, 
181; who shall succeed, 165. 
Press, right of freedom of, 42. 
Primary meeting, 170, 224. 
Probate court, 90. 

Property, 39, 47. 

Property tax, 213. 

Prosecuting attorney, 88, 146. 
Protection, right of, 43, 45. 

Pupils, rules governing, 28-29; du¬ 
ties of, 29-30. 

Quartermaster Corps, 185. 

“ Recall, : ” 72. 

Reclamation Service, 196. 
Recorder of deeds, 90. 

Register of deeds, 90. 

Register of the Treasury, 191. 
Registrars, 49. 

Registration, 49. 

Religious freedom, 41. 
Representation, rule for, 71. 
Representatives, how appor¬ 
tioned, 71; in Congress, 156- 
158; in the State Legislature, 
127; short terms of, 69. 
Reserve Board, Federal, 199. 
Residence of voters, 47. 

Rights, civil, 37-45; political, 46. 

Salaries, 180. 

School government, 24-32. 

School officers, 25. 

Secretary of State, 140, 177. 
Selectmen, 96. 

Self-control, 15-17. 


252 


INDEX 


Senate, 76; of State, 126; of 
United States, 158-159. 

Sergeant-at-arms, 128. 

Sheriff, 88. 

Shipping Board, 199. 

Slavery, 166. 

Solicitor, city, 103; county, 88. 

Speaker, 128, 158. 

Speech, freedom of, 41. 

State, Dept, of, 177, 182-185. 

State, the, 116-119. 

States, the admitted, 118; the 
original, 118. 

Statesmen, 228. 

Suffrage, 46-48; woman’s, 47. 

Superintendent of schools, county, 
91; State, 141. 

Supervisors, county, 87, township, 

100 . 

Supreme Court, of State, 148 ; of 
the United States, 209. 

Tardiness, 28. 

Tax collectors, 97, 215. 

Taxation, a power of the lawmak¬ 
ing department, 212; women 
represented in matters of, 47. 

Taxes, direct, 167; franchise, 219; 
how taxpayer’s share of is de¬ 
termined, 214; income, 217; 
poll, 218; property, 213. 

Teacher, 26, 31. 


Territories, 201-202. 

Town, government, 93-98; meet¬ 
ing, 95; officers, 96. 

Township, government, 99-102; 
meetings, 100; officers of, 100. 

Trade Commission, 198. 

Treasurer, of county, 90; of 
State, 141; of town, 97. 

Treaties, 175. 

United States, a representative 
democracy, 68. 

Veterans’ Bureau, 199. 

Veto, power of, 76. 

Vice President of the United 
States, 36. 

Village, 105. 

Voters, duties of, 59; qualifications 
of, 46-48. 

War, Department of, 177 ; organ¬ 
ization of, 185-186. 

War College, 186. 

Washington (City), 204. 

Weather Bureau, 197. 

Weights and measures, 163. 

Wife, 19. 

Women as voters, 47. 

Yards and Docks, Bureau of, 
186. 



































































































































































































































































































































































































































